


The Rookie SHIELD Agent & a Baby

by CarlsRightEye21



Category: Agents of S.H.I.E.L.D. (TV), The Avengers (Marvel Movies)
Genre: Clint doesn't have a secret family, Lesbian Character, Magic, Natasha has to learn to rely on others, No Bruce Banner, OC is a badass babysitter, Original Hispanic Character, SHIELD, The Avengers Adopt OC, Toddler Natasha, Tony Stark Is a Good Bro
Language: English
Status: In-Progress
Published: 2019-07-25
Updated: 2020-07-11
Packaged: 2020-07-19 19:23:57
Rating: Not Rated
Warnings: Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings
Chapters: 17
Words: 36,988
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/19979245
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/CarlsRightEye21/pseuds/CarlsRightEye21
Summary: During a mission gone wrong, Natasha is turned into a toddler. With none of the Avengers having any clue as to how to care for her, a rookie SHIELD agent, Lucia García, steps up to help look after Natasha. Unfortunately, Natasha isn't used to having to rely on someone but neither is Lucia.(Lucia is portrayed by Lina Esco)





	1. Chapter 1

Clint doesn't quite remember the events that lead up to him holding a dirty and screaming toddler version of Natasha that he wrapped in an emergency blanket. Nothing he or any of the other Avengers could coax a word out of her or calm her down. It wasn't really Clint's fault that he doesn't know how to interact with kids. 

He holds the wet and wriggling Natasha away from his body as he walks onto the helicarrier, absolutely tired. The other Avengers trail tiredly behind. 

"Aw, poor _chica_ ," A female pipes up and Clint turns towards the voice. "Do you mind if I hold them?" 

Clint looks at the agent and identifies her from her badge as a level two SHIELD agent. She was 5'8 with black hair hanging around her shoulders and olive skin. 

Clint decides to practically thrust Natasha into the woman's arms, at the end of his rope. 

"Should you just give her away to--" Steve starts but Tony shushes him as Natasha starts to quiet down in the woman's arms. 

"There you go _chica_ ," The agent softly shushes as she bounces Natasha gently. "It's alright." 

Natasha grips onto the agent as he sobs turn to hiccuping whimpers. 

"You're probably cold, huh?" She gently brushes Natasha's wild red hair out of her face. "All dirty and wet and in nothing but a blankie." 

"Cold," Natasha echoes, surprising the Avengers who weren't even sure that she could talk. 

The woman looks up at the Avengers. "Who does this _chica_ belong to?" 

"The only survivor of a casualty," Tony blurts out before anyone else can answer. 

The woman nods. "You need to clean her up and get her something to drink." 

"Uh," Steve flushes red. "Well, she's a girl and... we're all men." 

"I see," The woman nods. "Would you like me to clean her up?" 

All heads nod and the woman lets out a laugh. "In that case," She sticks out her hand. "I'm Lucia García, a twenty-two-year-old level SHIELD agent with three younger siblings." 

The Avengers go around, introducing themselves. 

"Let's meet in the canteen in a half hour. We'll be done by then," Lucia suggests. 

They agree and Lucia carries Natasha towards her personal quarters. 

What she wasn't aware of was that Natasha still had her adult mindset, struggling with the infantile side of her mind. 

Lucia pulls out her phone and sends a quick text message before filling the sink in her bathroom since the helicarrier only had showers. 

She tests the water before peeling the wet blanket from Natasha and gently setting her into the sink. 

She was gentle and careful to not get any soap into Natasha's eyes. She finishes up as there is a knock at her door. 

She pulls Natasha from the water with a towel and wraps her up as she answers the door. 

Natasha doesn't recognize the other agent but she's holding a small bag. 

"Just like you asked," The woman hands the bag to Lucia. "They may be a bit big." 

"Thank you so much," Lucia carries Natasha to the bed and opens the bag. 

She pulls out some infant clothing and a diaper. 

Natasha dreaded having to wear a diaper but her bladder was weak and uncontrollable now. 

Lucia expertly fastens the diaper on and slips Natasha into a set of the pajamas. "Sorry _chica_ but Kathy has a little boy." 

Natasha was dressed in a two-piece pajama set printed with trucks and a pair of blue socks. Natasha didn't really care, she was much warmer now. 

"There," Lucia scoops Natasha back into her arms again. "C _ómodo como un insecto en una alfombra_." She coos. "Let's get some food into your belly." 

Lucia carries Natasha to the canteen and gets a carton of milk and a straw and a banana. 

She sits Natasha in her lap and opens the milk, slipping the straw in and helping Natasha sip from the carton. 

She then mashes the banana in a bowl and spoonfeeds Natasha. 

That is where the Avengers find them. 

"Thank you so much," Clint swoops in to snatch Natasha off of Lucia's lap to bring her to Fury but the toddler howls when he grabs her. 

" _Que demonios_!?" Lucia snaps and pulls Natasha from his hands. "You can't squeeze her like that. You'll hurt her." 

Clint sighs and takes a look at the pair. Natasha had quieted down and looked content in Lucia's arms, thumb planted in her mouth as Lucia rocks her. 

Clint then just sighs. "Could you just come with us then?" 

"Fury won't like that," Tony mumbles. 

Lucia follows the Avengers to Fury's office. 

Natasha grips fistful's of Lucia's uniform in her tiny hands as they near the office. She doesn't want to hear what Fury will say. 

They enter his office but Natasha has a hard time thinking as Lucia gently rubs her back and sways her back and forth. The infantile part of her mind is soothed and she can't focus. 

"Who is this?" Fury barks as he enters the room, staring at Lucia. 

Lucia straightens, arm moving up to salute and Natasha misses her comforting hands. 

"Lucia García, level two agent, sir," Lucia introduces herself. 

"I see," Fury nods, leaning back in his chair. "And why are you in my office!?" 

Lucia doesn't flinch under the yell. Natasha, however, does as it hurts her now very sensitive ears. She lets out a whimper and Lucia's hand flies back up to soothe her again. 

"Lucia has been looking after her, sir," Clint speaks up. "And we'd like to move Lucia in until we can undo it." 

Lucia turns to him in surprise. 

"García," Fury starts. "The child that you hold in your arms is not from whatever bullshit story Barton told you. That child is the famous and deadly Black Widow. As you can see, she is currently out of commission and we do not know when we will get her back." 

He waits like he was expecting Lucia to drop Natasha in fear or disgust. 

Lucia merely purses her lips and readjusts the toddler on her hip. "Okay." 

Fury raises an eyebrow, wanting further comment. 

"Black Widow or not sir, she's just a child at the moment and needs someone to rely on," Lucia explains. "I've helped my mother raise my three younger siblings." 

Fury looks Lucia over. "You're the agent that disabled the bomb attached to the turbine." 

"Yes sir," Lucia bobs her head in a nod.

Fury looks to the Avengers before he looks back to her. "Would you be willing to put a hold on your training and leave this facility behind to care for the child with the Avengers until her recovery. You will be compensated," He questioned. 

Lucia looks down at Natasha who looks up at her, sure that Lucia would shove her into Clint's arms and leave. 

"Yes sir," Lucia nods and the answer surprised Natasha. 

Fury nods. "I'll get a car to take all of you to a store to get her some things. Dismissed." 

Lucia felt really awkward about being around the Avengers. Especially now that she knew that the child in her arms was the Black Widow. 

"So..." Tony scoots closer to her. "I'm Tony Stark but you probably already knew that." He wiggles his eyebrows. 

"And I like women," Lucia replies, cutting Tony's flirting off. 

Tony frowns and huffs. "So you're not a sexy babysitter, you're just a boring old nanny." 

"Hey, if I'm still getting paid then all is good," Lucia moves to cradle Natasha closer to her as the toddler starts to fall asleep. " _Dormir, chica_." 

**chica-girl**

**cómodo como un insecto en una alfombra- Snug as a bug in a rug**

**que demonios- what the hell**

**Dormir chica- sleep girl**

**NOTE: Spanish is not my first language, please correct me if I have made any grammar mistakes in my translations.**


	2. Chapter 2

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Lucia's arms are safe.
> 
> *Song is Wanderer's Lullaby*

True to his word, Nick Fury got the Avengers a ride to the store. Lucia held Natasha in her lap since there was no car seat and they were squished in one car. Natasha was asleep and cuddled close to Lucia’s chest. 

Lucia was the only one who knew what to buy but even she was hesitant because she didn’t know Natasha’s age. She guessed that Natasha was a little over a year old. 

Steve, being the gentleman he was, pushed the shopping cart that they filled with items. 

They got stares from people but Tony fiddled with his phone and promised that no photos or videos of Lucia or Natasha would get out. 

Clint picked out the pinkest and frilliest clothes he could find for Natasha to wear but Lucica only raised an eyebrow and told him to put them back. 

“She can’t wear that,” Lucia tells him. “Put it back.” 

“She totally can wear it,” Clint shoves a glittery dress in her face. “She’ll look adorable in it.” 

“First off, I wouldn’t let any kid wear that. The glitter on it will irritate her skin and that frill could choke her. The onsie with the lace has buttons that are too easy to fall off and for her to choke on. And you honestly can’t tell me that you think any baby should wear hot pink with neon lettering,” Lucia lists. “Put it back.” 

Clint grumbles and puts the abominations that Lucia could barely call baby clothes back. 

They ended up needing a second cart for big purchases such as a car seat and a crib. 

They were prepared to go full haul and if Natasha got turned into an adult the next day then it would be donated. 

Tony lost it when he saw the Avenger themed baby clothes and insisted on buying her a pair of Iron Man pajamas.

Lucia let him since he was paying for everything. 

Tony ends up calling a moving truck to take everything back to the tower. 

A car came to pick them up and Natasha’ new car seat was strapped in and Natasha slept contently, letting Lucia replace the thumb in her mouth with a pacifier. 

They arrive at the tower and the boys work on carrying the heavy items up. 

Natasha is startled awake when Clint accidentally drops his side of the box as they carry it, letting out a loud curse. She grabs onto Lucia until she remembers where she is. Lucia is softly cooing to her, assuring her that it was alright. 

Natasha is surprised that the rubber bit in her mouth was soothing and silently curses the infantile part of her mind that is clouding her thoughts. 

“Hey, _chica_ ,” Lucia greets her. “Have a nice nap?” 

Natasha watches as the Avengers haul the new items up and into one of the spare bedrooms. 

Natasha is still really tired though. Whatever happened that made her like this really drained her. 

She’s too tired to do much else than curl into Lucia and trust that the woman wasn’t going to drop her. 

* * *

Natasha wakes up and it’s dark. Fear curls in the pit of her stomach. It’s too dark and too quiet and she can’t move--

Natasha realizes that she’s in the new crib that Tony had bought just earlier that day. She’s wearing a new set of pajamas with small ducks printed on the fabric. 

It takes a moment before Natasha can move to sit up and grab onto the bars to pull herself up. 

Her stomach hurts and she’s tired but she can’t leave the room to roam the halls or go practice shooting or watch a movie. 

The emotions are overwhelming and tears trickle down Natasha’s cheeks and she cries because she’s alone. 

Then a small warm glow is cast over the walls and Natasha spots a figure move. She shakes the bars to get their attention. 

The figure turns out to be Lucia and she’s wearing pajamas, her hair sticking up in some places. 

“What’s wrong, _chica_?” Lucia’s voice was deep having just woken up. She leans over and pulls Natasha up into her arms. “You’re making quite a racket.” 

Natasha just clings to her because Lucia is warm and her presence is comforting and her arms make her feel safe. 

Lucia uses the sleeves of her pajama top to wipe away the tears on Natasha’s face as she gently sways her. “You’re alright. Shh.” 

“Ow!” Is all Natasha can moan into Lucia’s pajama top. 

“What hurts, huh _chica_?” Lucia questioned. 

Natasha moves an uncoordinated hand to her stomach to try and communicate what is wrong. 

She usually doesn’t tell others when she’s in pain and pain doesn’t usually bother her but the infantile part of her mind is making her instincts go haywire and it hurts. 

“Your tummy hurts?” Lucia gently moves Natasha to one arm and uses her free hand to gently touch her stomach. “It’s probably because you’re sleeping somewhere new, huh?” 

Natasha nods, burying her face into the crook of Lucia’s neck. 

“ _Todo esta bien_ ,” Lucia gently strokes Natasha’s hair back. 

Lucia gently moves Natasha to cradle her in her arms and moves to pull a pacifier from nowhere. 

“Wandering child of the earth 

Do you know just how much you're worth? 

You have walked this path since your birth 

You were destined for more,” Lucia starts to gently sing, surprising Natasha. 

“There are those who'll tell you you're wrong 

They will try to silence your song 

But right here is where you belong 

So don't search anymore” Lucia starts to gently dance around the room, swaying Natasha with her movements. 

“You are the dawn of a new day that's waking 

A masterpiece still in the making 

The blue in an ocean of grey 

You are right where you need to be 

Poised to inspire and to succeed 

You'll look back and you'll realize one day,” Natasha starts to nod off, the tight coil wound in her stomach starting to unwind. 

“In your eyes there is doubt 

As you try to figure it out 

But that's not what life is about 

So have faith there's a way,” Natasha is surrounded by warmth and safety. She hasn’t felt like this in forever. 

“Though the world may try to define you 

It can't take the light that's inside you 

So don't you dare try to hide 

Let your fears fade away,” Natasha hates the younger side of her mind that is so content and relaxed because she knows that there could be assassin just outside or something terrible could happen at any moment and she wouldn’t be able to do a thing. 

“You are the dawn of a new day that's waking 

A masterpiece still in the making 

The blue in an ocean of grey 

You are right where you need to be 

Poised to inspire and to succeed 

You'll look back and you'll realize one day,” Lucia gently sets Natasha back into her crib and leans on the bars for a few moments. 

“You are the dawn of a new day that's waking 

A masterpiece still in the making 

The blue in an ocean of grey 

You are right where you need to be 

Poised to inspire and to succeed 

Soon you'll finally find your own way.” 

* * *

Natasha ends up sitting in a playpen the next morning in the empty living room. It was early and she always woke up early so she inadvertently woke Lucia up too. 

Lucia sets the playpen up and gives Natasha some toys and makes sure that she’s safe before heading to the kitchen to prepare breakfast. 

There is the sound of a crash that startles Natasha and she expects Lucia to respond but she doesn’t. There isn’t the sound of anything being cleaned up. 

Natasha pulls herself up using the netting of the playpen and after a few attempts, she manages to climb and tumble onto the other side of the playpen to freedom. 

She can’t stand without help so she works on learning how to coordinate her limbs in a crawl towards the kitchen. 

And then she bumps into someone. 

She cranes her head up to look at Tony who looked really tired and dirty from his lab. 

“Hey there squirt,” He mumbles. “Where’s the boring nanny?” 

Tony looks around with a frown before looking down at Natasha again. “Whelp. I can’t leave you here, can I?” 

Tony leans down and hesitates before pulling Natasha into his arms. 

Natasha grabs onto his dirty shirt and pulls herself closer because his arms aren’t safe like Lucia and she’s afraid that Tony will drop her. 

Tony is unsure when holding her but takes her to the kitchen. 

Natasha doesn’t see Lucia at first. She can see bits of a ceramic bowl splashed out from behind the island and it isn’t until Tony rounds the corner that Natasha sees Lucia. 

And she looks nothing like Lucia did ten minutes ago when she set Natasha down. 

“ _Lo siento_ ,” Lucia mumbles. _“Lo siento mucho mamá_.” 

“Ah shit,” Tony mumbles, setting Natasha on the counter. 

Luckily, Natasha knew enough to stay still so that she wouldn’t roll off while Tony cleaned up the broken bowl. 

He disposes of it before squatting in front of Lucia. “Hey, Lucy-loo. Can you hear me?” His voice is unnaturally soft. 

Lucia barely glances at him. “ _¿Dónde está Camila?_ ” 

Tony frowns. “I dunno what you’re saying. Is Camila a name? One of your siblings?” 

“ _Mi hermana,_ ” Lucia mumbles. 

“That word I know,” Tony nods. “Sister. Is Camila your sister? She’s not here.” 

“ _Ella es solo un bebé,_ ” Lucia moans. 

“Bebe,” Tony butchers the accent. “That’s baby.” 

Tony then turns and realizes that Natasha is still on the counter and plucks her up before she could fall. 

“You’re at my tower, the Avengers tower,” Tony tells her. “Remember? Just yesterday you found out that Natasha was turned into a baby. You said you would take care of her. You’re her boring old nanny, remember?” 

Lucia’s head jerks up to look at Tony before her eyes settle on Natasha. 

“ _Maldita sea,_ ” Lucia groans. “I’m sorry. I freaked out.” 

Tony can see her coming back and hands Natasha to her. Lucia accepts the toddler and cuddles her to her chest. 

“I’m sorry,” Lucia mumbles. “There was something traumatic when I was younger involving my mother, my youngest sister, and a broken bowl. I had been working with someone at SHIELD to help cope with it.” 

“Do you, uh, need to continue to see them while you’re here?” Tony questioned, taking a seat next to Lucia. 

“Probably,” Lucia nods. 

Lucia then looks down at Natasha and sighs. “I’m sorry, _chica._ I shouldn’t have freaked out and left you.” 

Natasha cursed to herself that she couldn’t say more than two syllables at the moment for she had much to say. She couldn’t even say the woman’s name. So she had to compromise. 

“Lulu,” Natasha reaches up to pat Lucia’s face, not at all liking how Lucia was acting. 

Where was the woman who was singing to her last night? 

“Safe,” Natasha promises, settling on the one word she struggled to mumble. 

A small smile plays at Lucia’s lips. “You’re just too precious, _chica_.” 

  
  
  


**todo esta bien- everything is fine**

**lo siento- i’m sorry**

**lo siento mucho mamá- i’m very sorry mom**

**¿Dónde está Camila?- where is Camila**

**mi hermana- my sister**

**ella es solo un bebé- she is just a baby**

**maldita sea-dammit**

  
  
  
  
  
  



	3. Chapter 3

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Lucia has issues so Natasha won't let anyone push her around, especially when the men won't pick up the slack.

The other Avengers hadn’t interacted very much with Natasha since the accident. Tony was, in fact, the one who interacted with her the most because he witnessed Lucia’s panic attack in the kitchen so he tried to lessen her load. 

He builds grand baby items for Lucia to help with Natasha that included an advanced jolly jumper that Lucia set up in her room. 

Natasha was surprised to learn that SHIELD was still sending Lucia paperwork to do. Natasha would sometimes wake up at night to the warm glow of a lamp cascading gold light over the desk that Lucia was hunched over, scribbling in files. 

Natasha tries to be easy. She doesn’t really want anything other than the basic necessities. She tries not to bother Lucia because it was unfair to Lucia. 

But Lucia fills in other needs that Natasha hadn’t know had reawoken with the infantile part of her mind. 

And Natasha tries to impose on the other Avengers to give Lucia enough time for some time to herself but they merely bring her back to Lucia, sometimes not even picking her up but getting Lucia to come and get her. 

Tony was the only one who really dared to pick her up even if it was usually to bring her to Lucia. 

And then came the first weekend since Natasha was turned and Lucia had to leave to visit her therapist at SHIELD and Natasha couldn’t come. Lucia left a long list of instructions, showed them how to prepare meals and bottles and when to put her down for a nap. 

“Can you handle her for four hours? I can skip this,” Lucia tells them. 

But Natasha knows that Lucia can’t really skip it. She needed it after the accident in the kitchen. 

Tony promises that she’ll be in one piece still when Lucia returns. 

Lucia says her goodbye and leaves Natasha in her playpen in the living room where the others were watching a movie minus Tony who was tinkering in his lab.

Natasha tries to entertain herself but with being turned her attention span wasn’t what it used to be and she grew bored quickly. Lucia didn’t leave Natasha in the playpen for more than fifteen minutes at a time and it was easily coming around to be twenty. 

She throws the toys in her playpen at the others, obviously missing but just watched as they were returned and she would throw them again. 

She grows hungry and whines at them. 

Tony eventually emerges from his lab with grease smeared on his clothes and he looks a little surprised to see Natasha there. 

“Isn’t the kid supposed to be down for a nap now? JARVIS?” Tony questioned. 

“Natasha was supposed to have been fed and put down for a nap forty-five minutes ago,” JARVIS relays. 

“She’ll sleep when she’s tired,” Clint waves off JARVIS. 

Steve didn’t look comfortable enough to hold Natasha. 

Tony looks between the two of them before crossing the room to where Natasha was. “Hey, squirt. Come here.” 

Natasha wouldn’t trust Tony Stark with a baby but she was tired and hungry and just wanted Lucia. So Natasha raises her arms and lets Tony pick her up. 

Tony takes her to the kitchen and looks over the instructions that Lucia pinned to the fridge. 

“JARVIS, look up instructions on how to make this bottle Lucia mentions,” Tony calls out. 

JARVIS walks Tony through how to make food for Natasha. 

Tony finally makes the bottle and takes Natasha down to his lab with it, settling down on a couch he had down there. 

“Okay, kiddo. Do you, uh, need help eating?” Tony questioned her. 

Natasha thought he was an idiot for asking that to a toddler but decides to throw him a bone and respond since he was the only one that bothered to feed her. 

She ends up propped up by pillows, drinking from the plastic bottle and watching Tony work in his lab. 

“Ya’know,” Tony starts, capturing her attention. “Steve and Clint should never be given a baby. Steve is too scared that he’s gonna hurt it with his macho man strength and Clint is just a dumbass that thinks babies are gonna tell him what they need.” 

Tony turns towards her. “You are by far my favorite baby ever. I’ve seen plenty of drippy, smelly babies but Lucia has done a good job so far.” 

* * *

Natasha falls asleep on the couch and is woken up by JARVIS. 

“Sir, there is an altercation in the living room. Miss Gari á has returned and is furious with the others,” JARVIS relays. 

Tony moves to grab Natasha from her nest on the couch and heads to the elevator. 

They hear the yelling before the elevator even opens all the way. Natasha buries her face into Tony’s shirt to muffle the yells before the door opens. 

Tony steps out and then it’s silent. 

Natasha looks up and sees Lucia heading towards them with red-rimmed eyes. 

Tony hands Natasha over to Lucia and Lucia doesn’t say anything but holds Natasha close to her. 

“Hey,  _ chica _ ,” Lucia’s voice was a little hoarse. “Were you good for Tony?” 

Lucia reaches up to wipe away a smear of grease that transferred from Tony to Natasha. 

Natasha doesn’t like to see Lucia cry. She wants to make whoever made her cry pay.

She turns to glare at Clint and Steve for whatever they did to make her cry. 

Clint steps forward. “Aw, she still has her glare,” He coos. 

And Natasha is pissed so she screams as loud as she can, startling Clint who trips in his haste to back away from her. 

“What the fuck?” Clint questioned with wide eyes. 

“Shh, you’re alright  _ chica _ ,” Lucia gently sways Natasha. “Everything’s alright.” 

“Why did she scream at me?” Clint demands. 

“She probably sensed my distress,” Lucia replies. “We’re going to take a nap. We’ll talk later.”

She doesn’t listen to any replies as she heads towards the elevator with Natasha. 

Lucia piles up the pillows on her bed and lays propped upon them, curling up with Natasha. 

And Natasha is relieved that Lucia is back because no matter how many times the Avengers ave the earth, they do not know how to care for a baby. 

Besides, Lucia is safe. 

* * *

Tony wants to know more about Lucia. He wants to know why Fury went with some half-baked plan to pull Lucia from her life at SHIELD and throw her into the role of a nanny. He wants to know why Lucia was at SHIELD and more about her background. 

So Tony hacks SHIELD and pulls the file of Lucia Garci á because he’s curious. 

Her file isn’t blacked out like Tony is used to seeing. 

She’s the oldest of four. The next oldest is Gabriel, a twelve-year-old. Then there is Isabella, an eight-year-old girl. Lastly is the youngest, five-year-old Camila. 

Tony is surprised to see the multitude of CPS reports. The file says that Lucia was pulled from the home after she called 911 when Isabella had a seizure and they couldn’t get in contact with the mother, learning that Lucia was in charge of her siblings for eight hours at that point. 

Isabella was diagnosed with epilepsy and was separated from her siblings to go to a group home to deal with her medical needs. Lucia was then separated from Camila and Gabriel to go to a teen home. 

Lucia then had a record of running away and kidnapping her siblings from their homes. She spent a week in juvie before she was transferred to a new home. 

Each new page that Tony reads, he grows pale.

Lucia’s mother completed the required parenting classes and did everything she needed to to get her children back. 

Eight months after being taken away from their mother, Gabriel and Camila went home. Isabella remained at the group home but went home on the weekends. 

Tony is surprised to read that Lucia remained in care. The mother missed contact dates and refused to see her daughter. She blamed Lucia for getting her kids taken away and wanted nothing to do with her. 

One year after being taken into care a police report was filed when Lucia confesses to a multitude of emotional and mental abuse at the hands of her mother. The mother was reassessed by CPS but determined that the kids were healthy and happy. 

Once Lucia turned eighteen she was picked up by SHIELD after there was a bomb on a plane to Lucia’s next home. Lucia dismantled the bomb and held the perpetrator until police collected him. 

From there it was a list of missions she had been on since starting SHIELD. 

Tony leans back and sighs, rubbing his hands over his face. 

He understood why she was so angry at Steve and Clint now. 

Being neglected as a child and desperately trying to protect her younger siblings must have put weight on Lucia when she came to take care of Natasha. 

Nobody thought about Lucia. They just thought about how they wouldn’t be the ones to take care of Natasha. 

Tony closes the files and leans back. They needed to pick up some of the slack. He’d seen the bags under Lucia’s eyes for he wore similar ones himself when he refused to sleep for days on end after throwing himself headfirst into a project. 

He would try to come up with a way to tell the others that they needed to get off their asses and get over their phobia of babies because, at the rate they were going, Lucia wouldn’t last long. 

He would try too between when he wasn’t trying to figure out how to revert Natasha to her original state. 


	4. Chapter 4

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Tony decides to take everyone on a spontaneous trip to the zoo.

“Up and at ‘em!” Tony waltzes into Lucia’s room, pulling the blinds open.

Lucia is startled awake, sitting up and rubbing the sleep from her eyes.

Natasha is also startled but was already awake and quietly waiting for Lucia.

“We got plans,” Tony moves to pluck Natasha from her crib. “Get dressed. I’ve got the rugrat.”

“Wait, what?” Lucia demands but Tony is already walking out of the room with Natasha.

Tony carries Natasha to the elevator and enters. He eventually looks down at Natasha who was staring at him, confused.

“We’ve got a full day out for you,” Tony boops her nose. “Plenty of things to do, not enough time to do it.”

Tony enters the kitchen where Clint and Steve were eating breakfast.

“Here ya go,” Tony shoves Natasha into Steve’s currently empty arms. “Don’t drop her. Lucia would kill you.”

Steve is startled, frozen with Natasha now squirming to get comfortable in his arms.

“Lighten up, Cap,” Tony pulls a bottle from the drying rack. “You’re not going to suddenly crush her. You’ve got to support her.”

Natasha is confused and overwhelmed by the current events. This wasn’t her routine that Lucia set up.

“She’s crying,” Clint points out through a mouthful of Cheerios.

“Catch,” Tony pulls a pacifier from his pocket and tosses it to Clint who catches it easily.

Natasha recognizes it as one that she lost somewhere in the depths of Tony’s lab last time she was there.

“What do you want me to do with it?” Clint questioned.

“Just pop it in her mouth, hurry before she goes full-blown,” Tony moves to pull hot milk from the stove.

Clint moves towards Natasha with the pacifier. “Don’t bite me,” He warns as he hovers the pacifier over her mouth.

It was like he was teasing her, so Natasha reaches out and grabs it, pulling it towards her for comfort.

Clint lets it go once Natasha touches it. She guides it into her mouth.

“Hey, there you are!” Tony chirps as he greets Lucia who was now dressed and standing in the doorway, confused at the scene. “Take a seat and eat.”

“Do you got her?” Lucia questioned Steve.

“Actually—” Steve starts but Tony cuts him off.

“He’s great!” Tony shoves a bowl of cereal towards Lucia. “Eat up!”

“How did you know my favorite cereal?” Lucia questioned with a soft smile, pulling the box of Frosted Flakes towards her.

Tony shrugs. “Just the genius I am.”

Tony finishes the bottle and gives it a shake before moving towards Steve. “Here.”

“I don’t know how to feed her!” Steve protests.

“You’ll never learn with that attitude,” Tony laughs at Steve’s panicked face. “If I knew this was all it took to rile you up then I would have gotten a baby a while ago.”

Tony pulls Natasha from Steve’s arms and settles her into his, grabbing the bottle and started to feed her.

Lucia hides her laughter behind spoonsful of cereal. Tony looked like a natural.

“We’re going out today,” Tony announces. “We’re meeting Pepper for lunch to introduce her to Lucia.”

“I sense an ‘also’,” Clint cautions.

“We’ll show Lucia and Natasha a marvelous day!” Tony grins.

Lucia finishes up and takes Natasha from Tony once she was done and starts to burp her.

“I’ll go get her dressed and pack a bag,” Lucia tells them as she heads off with Natasha.

“What the hell man?” Clint demands as soon as they leave.

“What?” Tony innocently questioned as he grabs a cup of coffee.

“You’re pushing a baby on us. We don’t know the first thing about babies!” Clint throws his hands into the air.

Clint jumps when Tony slams his mug onto the counter so hard that it cracks, and coffee slowly leaks onto the counter.

“Lucia has not slept more than twenty hours in her week and a half of being here. SHIELD is constantly sending her paperwork and having her write letters and mission reports. Lucia has never asked for any help with Natasha and doesn’t put up a fuss when you pawn Natasha onto her. So, I’m saying to stop being a fucking coward and man up to help,” Tony smiles at Clint through gritted teeth. “Natasha is our teammate, baby or not. We practically thrust her into a stranger’s arms because we were too chicken shit and put our pride over sticking together. We’re going to do better.”

“You’re right,” Steve admits.

“What? You’re supposed to be on my side!” Clint argues.

“No. We’re supposed to be a team but if we turn on each other at any minor inconvenience and leave someone else to deal with it then we don’t deserve to be heroes,” Steve tells Clint. He looks up at Tony. “We’ll find a way to make it up.”

Lucia enters the room with Natasha dressed and a red diaper bag slung over her shoulder.

“Ready to go?” Lucia questioned.

“Doesn’t the kid need shoes?” Clint questioned.

“She doesn’t walk and shoes at her age inhibit her ability to learn balance and can give her flat feet,” Lucia explained. “Socks are fine.”

“Whatever,” Clint shrugs.

“Off we go!” Tony leaves the leaking coffee mug on the counter to clean up later and guides the group of them out to the garage.

“Happy, my main man,” Tony greets Happy waiting for them in the garage. “This is Lucia and the tot is Natasha.”

“Right,” Happy learned not to question things around Tony. “Nice to meet you, ma’am.”

“Did you get the car seat set up?” Tony questioned as he goes to enter the car.

“Yes,” Happy nods.

Lucia enters next and straps Natasha into the car seat. Clint sits next to her while Steve sits with Tony sitting facing towards Clint and Lucia.

“What are we doing first?” Lucia questioned.

“None of us have ever had a real childhood. So, we’re going to go do everything that every child should do,” Tony nods. “First things first. We’re going to the zoo.”

Clint is staring at Tony. “We’re gonna run around like a bunch of kids today?”

“Yup!” Tony nods. “All for Natasha.”

Tony then turns. “To the zoo, Hap!”

* * *

Steve ended up carrying the diaper bag while they wander around the zoo. Hats and sunglasses didn’t seem off in the sun and hid their identities.

The zoo was quiet because Tony decided to spontaneously go on a weekday when kids were in school.

They did have a lot of fun. Tony loved to shove money in whatever donate box was near the animals.

They all rode the carousel, even if it took a bit of coaxing from Lucia and Tony. Lucia rode a horse with Natasha while the others picked out the perfect horse that corresponded with their colors.

(And if the photo on the front page the next day was a bunch of Avengers on a carousel, nobody mentioned it)

They went to the penguins, the most popular exhibit. They ended up in the back of a crowd and Lucia taps Steve.

“Why don’t you put Natasha on your shoulders so she can see,” She suggests since he seemed to tower over the crowd.

Steve seemed uncomfortable but Lucia helps him lift Natasha up and hold onto her safely.

He kept her on his shoulders long after they left the exhibit.

“Dippin Dots!” Clint grins at the cart. “We should get some.”

“Sure,” Tony shrugs and the group heads over. Lucia helps Steve take Natasha off his shoulders and gets a cup to share with Natasha.

They sit at a bench to eat their ice cream, Lucia giving Natasha a few every few mouthfuls.

“This is pretty fun,” Clint finally admits.

“This is the beginning of a long road, my friend,” Tony grins, shoving a spoonful of birthday cake flavored Dippin dots in his mouth. “The tip of the iceberg.”

Lucia’s phone rings and she looks down at the caller ID. “I need to take this.”

Tony and Steve were still eating but Clint was taking a break to push off a brain freeze.

“Please hold her for a moment,” Lucia passes Natasha to Clint. “Gentle.”

Lucia then heads off to answer her phone.

Natasha was left sitting in Clint’s lap and eyes his ice cream.

Clint remembers when he and adult Natasha used to split cartons of rocky road ice cream after hard missions.

“You want some?” Clint questioned.

“Uh-huh,” Natasha replied.

Clint was startled that she answered him because she wasn’t much for talking.

“Alright,” Clint scoops up a small bit like he had seen Lucia do. “Here. Open up.”

Clint awkwardly feeds her a spoonful and Tony coos. Clint would flip him off if he wasn’t busy.

Lucia returns, the smile wiped from her face.

“Everything okay?” Steve questioned.

“They want me to do a bunch of paperwork but I’m not home. I got yelled at and threatened to get demoted for shirking responsibilities,” Lucia mumbles.

“Screw them,” Tony shrugs, licking his spoon. “You made a deal with Fury. Paperwork was in no way mentioned at the time of the deal.”

“I can’t have them kick me out,” Lucia shrugs. “I live there. I’ll be homeless if they kick me out.”

Tony places his ice cream down and pulls out his wallet and opens it. He grabs a few bills and slaps it onto the table in front of Lucia.

“What are you doing?” Lucia questioned.

“That there is a thousand dollars. You don’t work today and that is pay to make up for it,” Tony explained.

“I don’t even get this much a week,” Lucia laughs. “ _Gracias_ , Tony.”

“Perks of being friends with Tony Stark. Take the money, Lucy-loo and don’t worry about SHIELD. We’re having fun!” Tony grins.

“You’re something else, Tony,” Lucia smiles and pockets the money, taking Natasha back from Clint. “You feed her your chocolate?”

Clint couldn’t deny it. The evidence was smeared on Natasha’s face.

Lucia merely roots around in the diaper bag and grabs a baby wipe to clean up Natasha’s face.

They spend a few more hours at the zoo before Tony tells them that they have a reservation for lunch and need to get a move on.

They briefly visit the gift shop where Natasha got a stuffed penguin (Clint got a stuffed bird but will deny it until he’s blue).

Natasha starts to fall asleep on the walk back to the car and completely drops once she’s secured in her car seat.

They end up at a high-end restaurant and Lucia doesn’t bother to rouse Natasha and carries her inside. Rather than procuring a highchair, Lucia prefers to let Natasha sleep and hold her.

Pepper was already there. Tony greets her first before Clint and Steve say their hellos.

“And you must be Lucia,” Pepper smiles at her. “And that’s Natasha?”

Lucia nods. “Pleasure to meet you.”

They settle down at the table and order drinks. Tony ordered a bottle of expensive wine, but Lucia chose to stick with soda to stay sober for Natasha.

“You can live a little. Cap doesn’t get drunk, so they’ll be someone responsible,” Tony points out.

“I’m fine,” Lucia smiles. “Thank you though.”

Tony shrugs and Lucia goes back to looking at the menu.

They order and the chattering in the restaurant starts to bother Natasha.

“I’m going to the bathroom to change her, I’ll be back in a moment,” Lucia stands and takes the red bag from Steve and starts to head back towards the bathroom.

She quickly changes Natasha and finds a purple pacifier for Natasha to suck on in the pocket.

She heads out of the bathroom when the cap to one of the bottles fell out of the bag and bounced harmlessly onto the floor. Lucia has to balance Natasha and the bag so she can bend down to scoop the cap up.

When she straightens up with the cap, she’s face to face with a man who was clearly inebriated.

“Hey,” He grins, leaning on the entryway to the bathrooms, blocking the only exit.

“Excuse me,” Lucia tries to push past him, but she jerks back when he touches Natasha.

“Pretty baby,” He comments.

“Thanks, now if you excuse me—” Lucia tries to get by him again, but he leans further, blocking the exit on purpose.

“Don’t be that way. I just wanna talk to a pretty face,” He smiles at her. “You still with the baby daddy?”

“I don’t see how that’s any of your business,” Lucia’s tone is frigid, hoping that he’ll get the hint and go away.

“Aw, tough break up?” He pouts. “You know, I love kids.”

He reaches towards Natasha and Lucia’s SHIELD training kicks in. Her hands are full, so she sends a kick to the back of his knee.

“What the fuck?! You bitch!” He reaches out to strike Lucia.

Lucia holds Natasha close, protecting her head as she ducks and turns to send a roundhouse kick to the man.

The drunk man didn’t have the reflexes and it hit him, sending him into the wall.

“Fuck you!” He roars, leaping at Lucia.

Lucia must rely on kicks and is open to hits on her face because her arms are protecting Natasha.

Her head snaps back as his fist connects with her cheek.

The man pushes her up against the wall and Lucia must take her chances.

Her head connects with his, pain blooming behind her eyes as blood trickles into her eyes.

He stumbles back, clutching his head with a groan before he shakes it off, likely the effect of the alcohol.

And then a hand grabs the man’s shoulder and yanks him away from Lucia.

“What kind of low life garbage picks on a woman and her baby?” Tony questioned.

Lucia sighs in relief.

Clint pulls Lucia out of the hallway and back into the restaurant where Pepper was waiting, Steve was helping Tony with the man.

“Are you okay?” Pepper questioned only to receive an armful of a crying Natasha.

“ _Creo que voy a vomitar_ ,” Lucia mumbles before she stumbles back into the bathroom.

The man was arrested, and Tony goes into the women’s bathroom after Lucia.

Said woman is hunched over the sink, gripping the sides of it until her knuckles turn white. Blood drips from a wound on her forehead into the sink, a constant ‘drip…drip…drip…’.

“Hey Lucy-loo,” Tony greets her. “That was some kick-ass fighting you did.”

“Is she okay?” Lucia questioned quietly.

“Natasha is fine, just upset. Pepper has her,” Tony grabs some paper towels from the dispenser and wets them down.

“I got my ass kicked,” Lucia groans.

“You would have totally knocked that bitch out, but you were protecting Natasha and that left you open,” Tony presses the wad of paper towels to the wound. Lucia sucks in a hiss at the contact. “I’m impressed.”

“I should have been better,” Lucia counters.

“You did better than what I would have done,” Tony admits. “I would have either curled up to protect Natasha or screamed. Nothing like the paparazzi and a juicy scandal to scare people away.”

Lucia lets out a small laugh.

“We’re here to back you up, Lucy-loo. I hope you know that,” Tony pulls the towels away to inspect the wound. “You’ve become very important to us. Not just as a boring nanny but as a person.”

“Thanks, Tony,” Lucia gives Tony a fond smile. “That means a lot.”

“C’mon. We need to take care of your forehead, get some ice on your cheek, and hope that our wine isn’t warm,” Tony wraps an arm around Lucia and pulls her away from the sink and out of the bathroom doors.

**gracias- thank you**

**creo que voy a vomitar- I think I am going to throw up**


	5. Chapter 5

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Lucia doesn't come out of the fight unscathed so Natasha has to go on an adventure to get help.

Natasha quickly finds out that being in a fight as a toddler is much different than one as an adult.

She was on the verge of sleep when she and Lucia were approached by a drunk man.

She can’t shake sleep off as quickly as she can as an adult. Lucia holds her close while she uses basic SHIELD moves to keep the man away from her.

The man’s fist connects with Lucia’s face and Natasha tries to stay still, gripping Lucia’s shirt so she’s not jostled around so much.

The man manages to get a fair amount of hits in because Lucia is too busy trying to protect Natasha and leaves her face open. Luckily, Lucia gets in two or three hits for every one hit he gets in.

Then Tony shows up and Natasha had never been more grateful to see him.

Clint pulls them out and into the restaurant. Natasha’s fingers are ripped away from Lucia’s shirt as Lucia shoves her into Pepper’s arms before mumbling something in Spanish and darting off back to the bathroom.

“Is she okay?” Clint questioned.

Natasha realizes that she’s crying hard and that some of Lucia’s blood had dripped onto her.

“She’s fine. I think it’s Lucia’s,” Pepper explains.

She and Pepper aren’t close. Not since Natasha lied about being a spy and worked under her.

But Pepper doesn’t care as she tries to soothe Natasha, but Natasha just wants Lucia.

Clint picks up the red bag that Lucia had dropped and inspects a large gash on the side from when it got caught on a picture frame nailed on the wall.

“C’mon,” Clint roots around in the bag before pulling out a lime green pacifier.

Natasha then realizes that her purple pacifier is on the floor, having been crushed in the fight.

“It’s alright,” Clint moves towards her and pops it into her mouth. The familiar sucking motion calms her.

He then pulls out the packet of wipes from the bag and he takes one, hesitating.

“Give it to me,” Pepper holds one hand out and Clint passes the wipe over.

Pepper then works on wiping the blood from Natasha, not able to do much about what was on the outfit.

“There’s another change of clothes in here,” Clint pulls out the spare singlet that Lucia had packed. Funnily enough, it was blood red.

Natasha doesn’t care who changes her, blood on her now sensitive skin is a new and uncomfortable feeling.

The door to the bathroom opens and Tony exits with Lucia. Lucia is holding paper towels to her forehead.

The manager was speaking to Steve because he was the only one available after the man got arrested. He was apologizing profusely and offering them their meal on the house and another free wine.

“Lulu!” Natasha calls for Lucia, spitting out her pacifier and startling both Pepper and Clint.

Natasha just wants Lucia to hold her. She reaches for the woman, stretched out as far as she can in Pepper’s arms.

“It’s alright, _chica_ ,” Lucia promises. “Pepper will hold you while I clean up, okay?”

Lucia then pulls out her last pacifier from the pocket of her coat. There was a case on it to protect it from getting dirty. Lucia tosses it towards Clint who catches it easily.

“Lulu!” Natasha whines again because she just wants to be close to Lucia. Clint gives her the last pacifier.

Tony escorts Lucia away with the manager to the first aid kit in the kitchen while Pepper, Clint, Steve and Natasha head back to their table.

Many people left after the fight so there was only a sprinkle of people who had stayed.

Lucia and Tony return a few minutes later with a bandage plastered over Lucia’s forehead and ice wrapped in a cloth napkin pressed on her face.

Natasha squirms in Pepper’s arms and reaches for Lucia again.

“In a minute, _chica_ ,” Lucia promises, digging in the red bag for a spare shirt she packed.

She places the ice down and pulls the shirt over her bloodied one, pulling the dirty one off from underneath.

She then turns towards Pepper and holds her arms out. “Alright. I’ve got her.”

Pepper lets Lucia take Natasha from her and Lucia pulls Natasha close.

Natasha immediately latches onto Lucia, curling close to her and tucks her head under Lucia’s chin.

“It’s alright, _chica bonita_ ,” Lucia brushes Natasha’s wild hair out of her face. “Let’s get you in some clean clothes.”

Lucia changes Natasha into the spare outfit, gentle and comforting.

Natasha can’t do much. She was weak and useless in this form. She couldn’t protect Lucia, but she could comfort her.

So, she curls up against Lucia’s chest, trying to be a comfort.

But Lucia comforts her too. Her arms are safe, and she holds her tight.

The food arrives hot, but the group isn’t hungry anymore. They pick at their food and Lucia switches between shoving food around on her plate with a fork and holding the ice to her swollen cheek.

Tony offers to take Natasha so that Lucia can eat but Natasha curls her fingers into Lucia’s shirt even though she knows that it won’t stop her from being handed off, but Lucia shakes her head and pulls Natasha closer and Tony’s eyes soften because he understands.

“If you’re still up for it,” Tony starts. “I have one more thing that I’d like to do before we head home.”

“Can I know what it is or is it another surprise?” Lucia questioned.

Tony zips his lips and Lucia let out a laugh. “Alright. I’m down.”

“Sure,” Clint shrugs. “As long as it doesn’t involve alcohol or near-death experiences.”

“Do you really think I’d put a baby in a near-death experience?” Tony gestured to Natasha.

He lets out a gasp when Clint shrugs.

“Clinton, how could you!?” Tony places a hand over his heart. “We’re only going skydiving. They make tot-sized parachutes, right?”

Pepper laughs and shoves Tony and he grins too.

“No. We’re doing something totally baby-friendly and Pepper approved,” Tony nods.

“Alright,” Steve nods.

“Perfect,” Tony nods. “I can’t stand this place any longer. Let’s bounce.”

They don’t have to pay since their meal was free and they head out to the car, Pepper joining them.

Lucia notices the plastic bags that weren’t there when they entered the restaurant. Tony is grinning like an idiot.

Happy takes them to a park where Tony then announces their plan as the sun starts to set gently.

“We’re feeding the ducks,” Tony smiles, holding up the bag that reveals to be loaves of bread.

“I used to feed the ducks with my siblings,” Lucia smiles softly. “Wonderful idea, Tony.”

“I know. I’m awesome,” Tony nods as they file out of the car.

They pick a spot by the edge of the pond where they huddle together, crouched down as they watch the ducks swim around in the pond.

Tony passes out pieces of bread and they start to tear pieces off, tossing them into the pond.

It’s quiet so they don’t scare the ducks off.

It’s the perfect ending to a hectic day. Their face may be plastered on the front page of the news, Tony may have bought two dozen more pacifiers in crazy colors, Lucia’s face might hurt in the morning, but nobody would change it for anything.

* * *

Lucia wakes up because Natasha is literally crawling up the bars of her crib. Her head is pounding, and she doesn’t really want to get out of bed but eventually rolls out and shuffles over to where Natasha was.

“Lulu!” Natasha cries and holds her hands up to Lucia as she nears. Lucia can see that Natasha had been crying for a while and was confused because she hadn’t heard anything.

“ _¿Qué está mal chica?”_ Lucia mumbles, reaching over to pick Natasha up.

Natasha hiccups and shoves her face into Lucia’s rumpled pajama top.

“It’s alright,” Lucia coos, gently bouncing Natasha. “You’re okay.”

Lucia grabs a pacifier and carries Natasha back to her bed and lays back down, settling Natasha next to her by her face.

She’s tired. She thinks that the headbutt may have given her a concussion.

The last thing she remembers is Natasha struggling to sit herself up.

* * *

Natasha knew that Lucia had a serious head injury with the symptoms she presented. Still, she was in the body of a toddler and couldn’t do much about it.

But when Lucia mumbles and moves lethargically, Natasha knew that Lucia needed help.

Lucia falls asleep and Natasha sits up. She can’t form the word ‘JARVIS’ with her mouth. It’s too hard.

So, Natasha peers over the edge of the bed. It was a low-rise bed with no space between the frame and the floor. Only a few feet between the top of the bed and the floor.

Natasha goes down feet first, landing on her cushioned bottom and makes her way to the door.

She was lucky it was automatic and wasn’t locked.

Natasha heads towards the elevator. She must take a break because her limbs hurt so she sits back and pulls the pacifier from her mouth and aims it, throwing it and hitting the button.

She pulls it back into her mouth after the button is pushed and the doors open.

She makes her way onto the elevator and JARVIS finally speaks up, asking her where she wants to go.

“Nee!” Natasha declares after pulling the pacifier from her mouth again. She couldn’t form Tony’s name but hoped that the one-syllable was enough.

She wasn’t sure if it would work but to her surprise, the elevator descends.

It dings open in the living room where Natasha must make her way to the kitchen which was once only steps away that now seemed like a marathon.

So, she calls out for him. “Nee! Nee!”

And then she’s looking at a pair of legs and looks up at Clint.

“What are you doing here? Where’s Lucia?” Clint questioned.

“Lulu!” Natasha can’t tell him how hurt Lucia is. “Ow.”

“What?” Clint moves and picks her up. He’s unsure so she clings to him tightly as he takes her into the kitchen where Tony was nursing a cup of coffee.

“Here,” Clint shoves Natasha at him. “She was calling for you, I think.”

“Hey there rugrat,” Tony greets Natasha. “Where’s the boring nanny?”

“Lulu ow,” Natasha manages to tell him. “Night-night.”

“What?” Tony frowns. “How did you get down here if she’s asleep?”

“Lulu ow!” Natasha slaps his chest with an open palm. “Badman. Ow!”

She can’t communicate what she needs to and she’s getting easily frustrated. The infantile part of her mind is telling her to cry but she holds it back.

“Okay, what about Lucia?” Tony questioned. “Badman? Is Lucia hurt?”

“Lulu, ow, bad man,” Natasha nods.

Tony stands and starts heading towards the elevator.

Clint trails after him as Tony is asking JARVIS questions.

They arrive at the room that Natasha and Lucia shares. The door opens with a whoosh and Tony’s hand immediately goes to cover Natasha’s eyes.

She can barely see through slits in his fingers as Clint rushes towards Lucia.

Lucia wasn’t on the bed anymore, tangled in a heap of sheets on the floor. Her breaths came out in choked rattles and her nose was bleeding in a puddle on the ground.

“Fuck. Shit. Don’t do this to me, kid,” Tony rolls Lucia to her side and blood comes gushing out of her mouth.

“Get medical,” Tony snaps at Clint.

“Yeah,” Clint turns and hurries to contact medical, Natasha still in his arms.

Natasha is passed from person to person, fading into the background as Lucia is whisked away to medical.

It’s when Pepper stops by to clear the pandemonium that she sees Natasha peering out of the netting of her playpen.

“Hey sweetheart,” Pepper leans over the side and Natasha gratefully raises her arms up to Pepper.

She’s cold. In no way dressed for the air-conditioned living room. She just wants Lucia.

“Lulu?” Natasha questioned, grabbing fistfuls of Pepper’s blouse as Pepper lifts her onto her hip.

“Lucia’s okay,” Pepper promises. “You must be freezing. Jesus, Tony.”

Pepper heads to Lucia’s bedroom and searches through the drawers.

“Where are your shirts, Natasha?” Pepper questioned the toddler, praying for an answer.

Natasha points a chubby finger to the dresser by the crib that held her things.

Pepper pulls open the drawers until she finds a set of pajamas that were warm.

“Good enough,” She sighs and works on slipping them on over the onesie that Natasha had on.

“Lulu?” Natasha questioned.

“Lucia won’t be back for a while,” Pepper tells her. “She’s at SHIELD.”

“Nee?” Natasha questioned. “Toe. Nee?”

“Tony is with Lucia,” Pepper sighs, carrying Natasha back out of the room. “You hungry?”

Natasha looks up at Pepper. Did she even know how to take care of a baby?

Natasha decides to sit back and enjoy the ride. “Uh-huh.”

Pepper heads back to the elevator as her phone rings and she pulls it out, starting on a conversation about SI.

Natasha doesn’t care. Her now short attention span draws her away from the conversation even though the more adult part of her mind was screaming at her to listen.

Pepper enters the kitchen and with her phone pressed between her shoulder and ear she pulls a bottle from the drying rack and pops open the fridge.

Natasha watches Pepper multitask and make her lunch, occasionally pausing to ask JARVIS a question before continuing her task.

Pepper eventually gets off the phone halfway through feeding Natasha and sighs, asking JARVIS to add something to Tony’s ‘to-do’ list.

Natasha was eventually fed and just became a fixture on Pepper’s hip as Pepper went and did her thing.

She refused to let go of Pepper because she hadn’t seen anyone since Lucia was whisked away and had her doubts that Pepper would come back once she left.

So, Natasha cries every time that Pepper puts her down and constantly asks about Lucia.

Pepper watched Natasha for eight long hours.

Pepper then receives a call about Lucia and takes Natasha to SHIELD where Lucia was in medical.

They’re stopped by an agent. “No one under eighteen in medical,” He eyes Natasha.

“You want to watch her then?” Pepper holds Natasha out to the agent who stumbles away from the baby like she was a bomb.

Pepper then brushes past him and enters Lucia’s room.

“Tony Stark!” Pepper starts and Tony jumps from his position by Lucia. “You can’t leave me with a baby for eight hours!”

“Lulu!” Natasha breaks off Pepper’s speech because it was too loud and hurt her ears.

“Hey _chica_ ,” Lucia smiles at Natasha. She was hooked up to monitors and had an IV in her arm and oxygen on her face.

Natasha reaches for Lucia.

“Lucia can’t hold you,” Pepper readjusts Natasha in her arms.

“Nah, it’s okay. She’ll be fine,” Lucia reaches her arms out towards the two.

“Let her,” Tony tells Pepper and she knows the look he’s giving her, so she walks forward and sets Natasha onto Lucia’s stomach.

Natasha immediately latches onto the scratchy gown as she is surrounded with the safeness that is Lucia.

“ _Hola, chica,”_ Lucia gives her a tired smile. “You look sleepy.”

Lucia reaches up the hand that isn’t attached to an IV and rubs Natasha’s back.

Natasha closes her eyes because it was finally safe to sleep. Lucia wouldn’t let anything happen to her.

“You must have the magic touch or something because I could not set her down for even a moment,” Pepper tells Lucia.

“Yeah,” Lucia laughs, and Natasha falls asleep to the rumbling of Lucia’s chest as she talks.

* * *

“Where were you?” Pepper demands as soon as she gets a moment with Tony.

“SHIELD is trying to screw her over, Pep,” Tony blurts. “They want to kick her out for failing to do her job.”

“I thought it was agreed that she’d look after Natasha?” Pepper frowns.

“It was but suddenly there’s a bunch of bullshit from nowhere and Lucia is struggling and stressed and—she’s just a kid, Pep. They pulled her out of the foster system and now they’re threatening to toss her away,” Tony sighs. “I’m sorry I left you, but I was dealing with it.”

“Do I want to know what you did?” Pepper raised an eyebrow.

“Let’s give you deniability,” Tony nods.

“Do you think Natasha remembers some things?” Pepper suddenly questioned.

“Like what?” Tony asks. “What makes you think that?”

“I asked her where her shirts were like an idiot and to my surprise she turns and points me to them,” Pepper elaborates.

“Huh,” Tony shrugs. “I never would have thought. We can test it.”

“No running tests on the baby,” Pepper automatically replies.

Tony grins. “You know me better than that. Lucia will run tests on the baby.”

**chica bonita- pretty girl**

**¿qué está mal chica?- what is wrong girl?**

**hola, chica- hello girl**


	6. Chapter 6

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Tony discovers that Natasha isn't quite a helpless toddler.   
> Clint discovers more about Lucia's time at SHIELD.

Lucia had to stay overnight so Natasha had to go home with the Avengers, and she wasn’t eager to go.

“Come on, squirt,” Tony reaches for Lucia. “It’s time to let Lucia sleep.”

“No!” Natasha grabs at Lucia’s gown.

“It’s alright,” Lucia gently pries Natasha’s hands from her gown. “I’ll see you tomorrow, I promise.”

“No,” Natasha gets teary-eyed. “Lulu.”

“It’s alright,” Lucia reaches up to smooth some of Natasha’s wild red hair back.

Tony swoops in and grabs Natasha.

Natasha screams and wiggles in his arms and Tony holds her tight. “Stop it or I’m going to drop you!”

“Here,” Lucia reaches over to the pile of her clothes and pulls her shirt up. “Wrap her in it.”

Tony grabs the shirt and wraps it around Natasha like a blanket.

Natasha recognizes the calming scent of Lucia and stops her efforts to get away, burrowing into the shirt.

“You, my good woman, are a miracle worker,” Tony sighs.

“Don’t forget to ask for help if you need it,” Lucia reminds him.

“Pepper is staying the night,” Tony offers. “So, there will be a responsible adult that isn’t afraid to hold her.”

Lucia nods. “They expect me to discharge before noon tomorrow.”

“I’ll send Clint to pick you up,” Tony nods.

They bid their goodbyes and Tony leaves with Natasha.

He takes her to swing by the kids' store again and he carries her in, setting her in the seat in the shopping cart and swaggering through the aisles.

He went to get a new diaper bag first since the original one was ripped from the altercation at the bar.

He talked to himself as he tries his best to not admit that he had no clue what he was doing.

“Whelp, what do you think squirt?” Tony held up two bags.

He eventually settles on a navy-blue bag in a similar style as the first and then moves them to the pacifiers.

There was a pregnant woman in the aisle, looking at the newborn soothers that startled when she sees Tony Stark.

“Is that your baby?” She blurts before slapping her hands over her mouth, horrified.

“No this is my colleague. She’s thirty-six. She just has a height problem,” Tony replies, grabbing a handful of packages of brightly colored pacifiers.

The woman stares at Tony as he moves on until he is no longer in sight.

The cashier, a pimply teenager who wasn’t getting paid enough didn’t say a word as he checks out THE Tony Stark or comments on the random baby that he seemed to have procured.

Natasha found herself falling asleep in the car and woke up to JARVIS’s voice as Tony enters the elevator.

Pepper got take-out for dinner and had just finished setting the table when Tony arrived.

It was the first time where everybody had acknowledged Natasha while they ate and didn’t try to pawn her off onto Lucia, mainly because Lucia wasn’t there.

Pepper ended up feeding her dinner and she was soon moved to Steve’s lap so that Pepper could eat.

Lucia’s shirt was comforting the infantile part of her mind that had accepted Lucia as it’s main caretaker and trusted her. The soft fabric and smell helped center Natasha so that she could focus.

Tony offered to take her after dinner much to everyone’s surprise. Steve washed the dishes and Pepper went to do some paperwork while Clint went off to practice his archery.

Tony sets Natasha in the living room before grabbing a large bin from the corner of the room.

Tony dumps a box of wooden blocks in front of her.

“So, Lucia obviously can’t do this so I am. I need to know,” Tony sits in front of Natasha. “Please use the blocks to spell and answer my questions.”

Tony sighs as Natasha stares at him.

“Let’s start with your name. Can you spell that?” Tony asks.

Natasha thought about fooling him for a moment but decided that he needed to know everything to get her back.

Natasha crawls forward and sifts through the blocks as she finds each letter and clumsily lines them up to spell her name.

Then she sits back and waits.

Tony looks from the blocks to her before looking down at the blocks again and rubbing his hands over his face. “God damned it.”

Tony shoves the blocks spelling her name aside. “Okay. Next question. Are you still in there? Y for yes, N for no.”

Natasha holds up a yellow-painted ‘Y’ block.

“Okay. So you’ve been an adult all along,” Tony nods. “Right. Uh… are you okay?”

Natasha stares at him.

“Right, stupid question,” Tony sighs. “I need to know what happened but that’ll take forever at this point. So I’m going to make some suggestions and you’ll tell me if I’m right or wrong.”

Natasha nods and Tony starts.

“You got hit with something that made you this age.” Tony gives his first statement.

Natasha points to the ‘Y’ block.

“It was from a machine.” Tony continues.

Natasha points to the red ‘N’.

“A person?”

Natasha taps the ‘Y’.

“It was magical,” Tony adds.

‘Y’.

“The magic-user was a male.”

‘N’.

“We have seen the magic-user before.”

‘N’.

“The magic-user was an alien.” Said Tony.

Natasha hesitates. It was a little fuzzy but despite her human appearance something about the woman screamed ‘inhuman’.

“Okay. You don’t know. That’s fine,” Tony hums. “The magic was similar to Loki.”

‘Y’.

“Really?” Tony straightens. “Shit. Okay. Uh, the woman was part of the fight with the robots.”

‘N’.

“Did she say anything before she used her magic?” Tony pleads with her to remember.

Natasha leans forward to mess around with the blocks again.

Tony patiently waits as Natasha moves them around until she finishes and looks back up again.

Tony peers at the message.

“Your greatest weakness is your team.” Tony reads. “That makes no sense. She didn’t come after us.”

Natasha starts to absentmindedly stack blocks.

“Natasha?” Tony questioned. “You’re not all there, are you? You have baby instincts hardwired into your brain still, huh?”

Natasha freezes.

“Do you want me to tell the team that you’re still an adult?” Tony inquired.

‘N’.

“Do you want me to tell Lucia?” Tony then asks.

That causes Natasha to pause. Did she want Lucia to know?

Would Lucia stop treating her the same? Would she stop holding her or singing to her or playing with her?

The infantile side of her mind screamed NO because then the little things that Lucia did would stop.

The adult side of her mind said YES because it wasn’t fair to Lucia and she could help better if she knew the situation.

She doesn’t know how to verbally explain this to Tony and tears well up in her eyes.

“Shit, squirt,” Tony leans forward and hesitates before continuing and pulling Natasha into his lap. “Lucia will still like you. She won’t drop you because you can still think and remember everything.”

Natasha sniffled in response.

“You gotta trust Lucy-loo. She’ll understand. I can tell her that this changes nothing and to keep on how she was doing it before,” Tony suggests.

The elevator opens and Tony kicks the blocks to the side, erasing any sign that they were used for anything other than stacking.

“Natasha needs to start getting ready for bed,” Pepper tells him.

“Yeah. Sure. Okay,” Tony nods and passes Natasha to Pepper for her to get Natasha ready for bed.

Steve had pulled the crib into the room he shared with Pepper earlier so that he could keep an eye out for Natasha.

Natasha found herself disgruntled when they didn’t follow the night routine that Lucia had told them. No Lucia to gently bounce her while she works on paperwork under the soft yellow glow of the lamp or the gentle rumble of her chest as she hums and works.

She hadn’t even realized that she had gotten used to it until it was missing. For once, Tony goes to bed on time, crawling in and cuddling up to Pepper.

Sleep doesn’t come easy to Natasha and when it does it doesn’t last.

She wakes up in the middle of the night sobbing. She can’t keep the tears at bay and that was one of the things she hated the most about being in this body.

She wants Lucia, she wants her song, she just wants somebody else to take the weight of the world off of her shoulders. She just wants to enjoy being one.

The light turns on and Pepper tries to soothe her but it’s not the same. Pepper bounces but Lucia sways. Pepper hums and hushes but Lucia sings. Pepper’s hands are strong and firm, but Lucia’s are soft and safe.

Pepper paces and bounces until she is too tired and then Tony takes over. He doesn’t even hesitate despite knowing that Natasha is still in there.

Tony pats instead of bounces and his arms are awkward.

“JARVIS, call Lucia,” Tony eventually croaks.

“She needs to rest,” Pepper tells him with a warning tone.

“Tony?” Lucia’s voice is filtered through the speakers in the room.

Tony doesn’t have to explain the problem. She can hear Natasha crying just fine.

“Aw, _chica_ ,” Lucia’s voice softens. “You must have had another night terror.”

“How do we get her to stop?” Tony begs.

Lucia starts to describe how to hold Natasha, how to walk and sway.

It’s not the same as Lucia but Natasha finds herself quite a bit comforted.

She can feel the relief flood Tony and Pepper’s body when she quiets down.

It’s easier to fall asleep when Lucia is there.

* * *

The next morning, Clint is the one to volunteer to pick Lucia up. He grabs her a change of clothes and a hairbrush and heads to the medbay.

Only to discover that her bed is empty, and she had been checked out for half an hour. Clint was confused.

“She’s with her handler,” A nurse kindly informs him.

Clint didn’t know who her handler was. There were few people that could possibly be her handler because she was only level two.

So, he goes on a hunt to the three possible people it could be.

He found her after the first one. There was loud shouting coming from inside, a man barking orders and a woman defying.

Clint realized after a moment that the women were Lucia.

He stands outside the door and listens.

“That is an order Garcià!” The man barks.

“I refuse!” Lucia doesn’t quite raise her voice to the point the man does but it is strong and defiant.

“I can have you demoted and kicked out faster than you can say ‘yes, sir’!” The man snaps back.

“If SHIELD is willing to risk children to get what they want then perhaps that is for the best,” Lucia’s voice goes calm and Clint must strain to listen.

“She is trained,” The man sneers.

“She is a toddler that can’t even speak in full sentences,” Lucia bites back. “I refuse to take the child in my care into the field.”

Clint’s blood runs cold at that statement.

“She is the Black Widow,” The man tells her. “Either gear up or get out.”

The door opens and Clint backs up as he comes face to face with Lucia.

Her hair is pulled back into a messy ponytail and she’s wearing a black SHIELD uniform. “Clint!” She was surprised.

Clint reaches out and places a hand onto her shoulder. “You stood your ground.”

Lucia lets out a half-smile.

“Here. Go get changed,” Clint passes over the bag with her things. “I need to have a word.”

Lucia looks back at the door. “Okay.”

Clint was pleased that she didn’t fuss as she takes the bag and heads into the bathroom.

Clint steps into the room.

“I thought I told you to get out Garcià!” The man snaps.

“My name isn’t Garcià, sir,” Clint dryly informs him.

The man’s head shoots up with wide eyes and he stutters over his words. “Mr—Hawkeye—sir!”

“I wanted to get one thing straight,” Clint swaggers over to lean over the man. “That kid in her care is my best friend and I would _kill_ for her. If I hear another word about the kid or threatening that agent for doing her job, then I promise you will regret it.”

The man swallows and nods. “Yes, sir.”

“Great,” Clint pulls back with a grin. “Have a great day!”

Clint moves back into the hallway where Lucia was now in a baseball tee and jeans with her hair brushed neatly back.

“You done?” Lucia doesn’t hide the small smile on her lips.

“Yup!” Clint throws an arm around Lucia’s shoulder and realizes how easy it is to be around her.

They joke and banter all the way back.

Lucia and Clint enter the building and take the elevator up to the kitchen.

“Welcome back, Lucy-loo!” Tony greets her.

“Lulu!” Natasha squeals in joy from where she was sitting with Pepper. She bounces and reaches towards her.

“ _Hola, chica_ ,” Lucia moves to pluck Natasha from Pepper’s lap and twirls her around. _“¿Dormiste bien anoche?”_

Natasha easily reclaims her place on Lucia’s hip, gripping fistfuls of her shirt to keep balance and leans into Lucia’s shoulder.

“Did she eat?” Lucia questioned.

“Yes. Now it’s your turn,” Tony pushes her into a seat at the table and a plate of food was pushed in front of her.

Natasha was moved to Lucia’s lap and leaned into her chest as Lucia eats.

“How was your night in the medbay?” Steve questioned.

“Eh. Same as usual,” Lucia shrugs. “Nurses just don’t leave you alone.”

“Amen,” Clint nods.

“As usual?” Tony repeats. “You’ve been before?”

“Ah,” Lucia blushes. “I get hurt easily.”

“It surely can’t be all because of missions?” Clint frowns.

“Nope. Most of it is from training,” Lucia admits.

“Training shouldn’t hurt you like that,” Pepper pipes up with a frown and turns towards the others. “Right?”

“Not if done properly,” Steve shakes his head.

“Eh, my handler is just tough,” Lucia shrugs.

“Oh, hell no!” Clint slams his glass onto the table. “We are not talking about that same jackass. I should have kicked his ass!”

“Clint?” Steve questioned.

“That’s it. Lucia, you work for us now not SHIELD, you don’t have to take their bullshit,” Clint tells Lucia. “We hereby adopt you. SHIELD can’t have you back.”

“I’m twenty-two, not twelve,” Lucia laughs. “I am a SHIELD agent. I became one to do good.”

“But not at the expense of children,” Clint sighs.

“What are you talking about?” Tony asks.

So, Clint explains it at Lucia’s nod. The others were rightfully angry.

“Have you talked to Fury about this?” Tony questioned. “Patchy the pirate may be an asshole, but I think he likes Natasha.”

“Just wanted to get out before he found an arrow in his forehead,” Clint admits.

“ _le dices_ ,” Lucia mumbles with a smile.

After breakfast, Lucia takes Natasha to the living room to play with her. To her surprise, Tony sits on the floor next to her.

“I need to talk to you,” Tony mumbles.

“Do you need to talk in private?” Lucia questioned. “Not in front of Natasha?”

“That’s what we need to talk about,” Tony sighs.

And Tony tells Lucia about what he found out.

**hola chica- hello girl**

**¿dormiste bien anoche?- did you sleep well last night?**

**le dices- you tell him**


	7. Chapter 7

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Lucia and Natasha hash out a communication system after Lucia finds out about Natasha's adult part of the mind.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> oh dios mío- oh my god
> 
> maldición- damn
> 
> ¿qué? Tony? ¿que pasó?- what? Tony? What happened?

The news of Natasha’s state surprised Lucia.

Lucia dismissed them directly after, carrying Natasha to their room. She grabs her SHIELD iPad and opens up the drawing app after placing Natasha safely in her bouncer.

She can feel Natasha’s eyes on her as she scribbles onto her tablet.

“Okay. Let’s see if this works,” Lucia takes a seat in front of Natasha and presents her tablet where she had written four lines of letters and two circles. The circle in the left hand read ‘YES’ and the circle in the right hand read ‘NO’.

Then there was the four lines of letters.

YES ABCDEF NO

GHIJKLMN

OPQRST

UVWXYZ

“We need to talk right now if it’s true,” Lucia explained. “I’m going ask you questions, and I need you to answer me. Can you do that?”

Natasha nods and Lucia props the tablet in front of her.

“Is it true that your adult self is still in there?” Lucia questioned.

Natasha taps the ‘YES’.

Lucia takes a deep breath. “Okay. I feel that we need to set up some rules then. Are you still comfortable with me as your ‘guardian’ now that I know of your current position?”

Lucia waits as Natasha’s eyes flicker over the options.

She eventually settles on ‘YES’.

“Okay,” Lucia nods. “I feel like we need a better and quick way to communicate. Do you agree?”

YES

“Okay. So, let’s start with a signal that you need me to stop. Maybe I’m doing something you don’t like. You pat me three times anywhere on my body and I will stop, and we can talk. Does that sound okay?” Lucia proposed.

Natasha nods.

“Uh. What else do we need? You still have your ‘spy’ in there?” Lucia questioned. “I’m a level two SHIELD agent. You’re level nine and have way more experience than me. Do you still get that feeling right before something goes wrong?”

Natasha frown and taps out an answer.

S O M E T I M E S

“Okay. Let’s say that we’re out in public and you get a feeling that we need to leave, and I don’t. Like any kid would to, grab some of my hair and tug twice and I can leave safely and fast. Does that work?” Lucia inquired.

YES

“How about YES and NO? Tap my left shoulder for yes and right for no?” Lucia suggests.

YES.

“Alright. What else should we have a signal for?” Lucia questioned. “Any idea?”

She waits patiently as Natasha taps out an answer.

N E E D. M E. M A K E. D I S T R A C T I O N

“Right. Okay. Maybe I sense something is wrong and you don’t. If I need you to cause a scene by throwing a full out tantrum so we can leave I’ll, uh…” Lucia frowns in thought. “I’ll tap the bottom of your right foot three times. Then there will be no doubt.”

Lucia then adds in. “And if I need you to keep absolutely quiet then I’ll tap the bottom of your left foot three times.”

Lucia frowns. “I think that’s it. Now that that is out of the way, let’s talk about us. Do you want me to change anything about the routine I set up for us? I can give you a little more freedom or not confine you when it’s just us.”

Lucia thought the answer would be immediate, but Natasha stops and thinks.

P A R T. A D U L T. P A R T. I N F A N T. N O T. S A F E.

“So, part of you is there and part of you has reverted back to infantile instincts?” Lucia questioned.

Natasha nods.

“Okay. And you don’t want me to change anything because you might let loose and it won’t be safe,” Lucia checks in.

YES

“ _Oh Dios mío_ ,” Lucia mumbled. “So, let’s clear this up. You don’t want to change anything that I’m doing right now?”

YES

“Alright. Unless there is anything else that you need to tell me then I think we’re done talking,” Lucia tells her.

Natasha taps out another answer.

W A L K I N G.

“Oh, cool. Sure, I’ll see about some safe things we can do to help you about walking,” Lucia nods. “Anything else?”

NO

Lucia pulls the tablet away and shuts it down, putting it away before heading back towards Natasha and scooping her up.

* * *

Nothing really changed in Lucia and Natasha’s routine. The only difference was Lucia giving Natasha more options.

What did she want to wear? Eat? Play? Do?

Lucia did more paperwork for SHIELD that they suddenly piled on. It was double the amount as usual and Lucia struggled to finish it.

Natasha knew that Lucia didn’t sleep so much anymore. She knew that she needed to intervene when Lucia spent a few minutes staring at a blank wall and mumbling the mission reports that had been ingrained in her head from doing them so much.

Lucia picks Natasha up to get her ready for bed and Natasha taps Lucia’s cheek three times.

Lucia freezes in her tracks. “Are you okay?” She looks down at Natasha. “Is something wrong?”

She places the pajamas she got out aside and carried Natasha over to her tablet, saving her work and opening the same drawing as before.

“Okay, here,” Lucia props the tablet up again.

Natasha didn’t really think that Lucia would stop. Lucia was bigger than her. She didn’t have to listen. She could make Natasha do whatever she wanted.

But she didn’t.

Natasha works on tapping out her message.

S L E E P. T O N Y.

“You want to sleep with Tony?” Lucia questioned. “Is something wrong? Did I do something wrong?”

Natasha hadn’t intended to make Lucia panic.

N O. M O R E. W O R K.

“What?” Lucia frowns. “I don’t understand.”

Natasha points a finger to where Lucia had been working, to the collection of coffee cups, to the crumpled papers, to the stack of papers.

“You want me to take a break?” Lucia guessed. “I’m sorry. I still don’t understand. You know that I need to get this done.”

Natasha was never more frustrated that she couldn’t speak.

T A K E. A. B R E A K. S L E E P.

“I think I get it,” Lucia nods. “You want to sleep with Tony so that I can get a full night.”

Natasha nods pleased that Lucia pieced it together.

“I have so much work to do,” Lucia mumbled, eyes trailing to the stack of papers. “ _Maldición_.”

Lucia runs a hand through her messy hair and grimaces. “Okay. I admit that I can use a break. Are you sure?”

Natasha nods.

“Okay. I’ll finish getting you ready and take you to him,” Lucia nods. “JARVIS would you let Tony know?”

“Certainly,” JARVIS confirms.

Lucia shuts her tablet down and places it back and pulls Natasha back into her arms. “You did a great job letting me know that we needed to talk.”

Natasha soaks up the praise she didn’t know she needed as Lucia sets upon doing about their night routine once again.

Lucia gets Natasha dressed in her pajamas and grabs her stuffed penguin and blanket, carrying them out into the elevator.

Natasha was falling asleep in her arms and Lucia was having second thoughts about letting Natasha leave but Natasha wanted this. Lucia would listen.

Tony greets them in the lab. “Guess I have to go to bed now too, huh?” He grins as he accepts the stuffed animal and blanket before taking the half-asleep toddler from Lucia.

“Don’t hesitate to wake me up if you need help,” Lucia rocks on her feet.

“I won’t,” Tony promises. “Go get some beauty sleep Lucy-loo. You look like you need it.”

“Tony!” Lucia grins and gently bumps his shoulder that didn’t have the sleepy toddler on it. “Goodnight.”

“Night, boring nanny.”

* * *

Lucia doesn’t sleep as well. She shared a room at SHIELD and with Natasha she could still hear the soft breathing of someone else.

The room was too quiet. There is still caffeine in her system and Lucia’s mind keeps going back to all the paperwork that she has left.

She eventually gets out of bed and makes her way to the kitchen to get a warm drink.

To her surprise, Clint was there, hunched over the counter in his pajamas and bedhead and cradling a mug of something close to his chest.

“Clint?” Lucia speaks up.

Clint jumps and whirls around to look at her. He relaxes when he sees that it’s just her. “Lucia.”

“Can’t sleep either?” Lucia questioned as she opens the cabinet to get some tea.

“Yeah,” Clint sighs. “Where’s Natasha? Still sleeping?”

“Tony took her for the night so that I can sleep,” Lucia shrugs.

“Yeah. Used to bunking with someone, huh?” Clint questioned.

“Yup,” Lucia frowns at her choices.

“Want me to make you a hot drink?” Clint offers. “Natasha used to say that I could make a pretty mean hot chocolate.”

She could see he was itching to do something and take his mind from whatever was bothering him.

“That sounds lovely,” She admits. “Thank you, Clint.”

Clint jumps up and gets to work as Lucia takes a seat at the counter.

They sit in comfortable silence as Clint flutters about before producing a mug of hot chocolate and whipped cream with chocolate shavings on top.

“Looks delicious,” Lucia accepts the mug. “My brother tried to make hot milk once and nearly burned the house down.”

“Sounds like a danger in the kitchen,” Clint comments. “Same for Tony. Don’t let him near anything but the coffee and that’s only because it’s a machine.”

Lucia grins. “I was in a foster home when I was younger and one day the biological child had a birthday. The mother wanted to show off and make a handmade cake for her precious baby. She forgot the thing was in the oven and nearly burned the house down. The fire destroyed the living room and kitchen and I was relocated.”

“You either know how to cook very well or you’re a hazard to society,” Clint nods, taking a sip of his drink.

Lucia picks up hers and takes a sip, letting the warmth flood through her.

“Sometimes, when Natasha and I can’t sleep, we sneak down here to watch shitty reality TV,” Clint suddenly pipes up. “Would you like to join me?”

Shitty reality TV sounded exactly like what Lucia needed. “Yeah.”

The move out to the living room where Clint makes a pretty good nest of blankets and pillows. He wasn’t afraid about being touchy-feely and cuddled up close to Lucia.

They watch ‘Toddlers & Tiaras’ and ‘Real Housewives’ until Lucia’s head is drooping.

“Go to sleep, I’ve got your back,” Clint mumbles.

Lucia lets her head fall onto Clint’s shoulder and closes her eyes.

* * *

Natasha wakes up in a panic.

The nightmares were different than usual. The talk with Lucia brought up bad memories. Being used. Having no control.

Lucia isn’t there to comfort her. She didn’t even remember what she told Lucia until Tony’s concerned face was hovering over hers.

“Nat? What’s wrong? What happened?” Tony questioned.

He reaches for her and Natasha needs him to stop.

Tap. Tap. Tap.

“What—” Tony pulls back.

Natasha realizes that he’s not Lucia.

“Lulu,” Natasha manages to get out between sobs. “Lulu!”

“Okay. Okay. C’mon, we’ll go to Lucia,” Tony reaches for her again, but she shoves his touch away.

“Nat, you need to work with me,” Tony pleads. “Just until I can get you to Lucia. You want Lucia, right?”

His touch hurts and she squirmed but lets him pick her up. She can’t get the infantile side of her mind to shut up. It’s screaming. Scared. Upset.

Tony enters the elevator. “To Lucia’s room,” He instructs.

“Miss Garcià is currently in the living room,” JARVIS informs him.

“Then to wherever she is,” Tony corrects.

The elevator descends and they exit into the living room.

Lucia was tucked under Clint’s arm, fast asleep. Clint’s head was tilted back as he slept to and the television played a random reality show.

“Lucia!” Tony approaches.

_“¿Qué? Tony? ¿Que pasó?”_ Lucia jerks awake, waking Clint up too.

Lucia sees Natasha in his arms and holds out hers.

Tony practically shoves Natasha into her arms.

“Shh, it’s okay, _chica_ ,” Lucia soothes. “It’s alright. You’re safe.”

Natasha doesn’t feel safe. She grabs Lucia’s hair and pulls twice.

“You’re not in any danger. You’re at the tower,” Lucia promises, standing and leaving Clint so that she could talk to Natasha properly. “I know you don’t feel safe, but you are. I promise.”

Lucia sways and soothes Natasha just like before.

Natasha had been afraid that revealing that some of her adult self was left behind would make Lucia stop comforting her after nightmares or swaying or singing.

“You’re thinking too hard, _chica_ ,” Lucia softly comments. “Do you want something warm to drink?”

Natasha taps Lucia’s left shoulder. YES.

Lucia moves towards the kitchen and expertly prepares a bottle while swaying.

Clint usually helped with her nightmares, but Clint had no idea that she was still part adult and even if he did, they couldn’t do what they usually did which was train and spar.

“Here you go,” Lucia guides the bottle to Natasha’s mouth. “You’re okay. I’ve got you.”

Perhaps they weren’t ready to sleep apart yet.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Quick overview of Natasha and Lucia’s communication.
> 
> Natasha to Lucia:
> 
> Three taps anywhere- stop
> 
> Tap on right shoulder- no
> 
> Tap on left shoulder- yes
> 
> Two tugs on her hair- we need to leave now/ not safe
> 
> Lucia to Natasha:
> 
> Three taps on the bottom of her right foot- make a distraction
> 
> Three taps to the bottom of her left foot- keep silent


	8. Chapter 8

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> When Lucia's handler threatens the safety of Natasha, Lucia has to speak with Maria Hill and Director Fury.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> No me sentia segura- I do not feel safe  
> Cálmese- calm down

When Natasha is an adult, she rarely got sick. If she did she would sweat it out in a matter of days. 

When Natasha was an infant, however, that was a whole other story. 

Lucia picks up on it immediately, before Natasha does. 

“You’re getting sick, _chica_ ,” Lucia pats Natasha on the back as she coughs. 

“No,” Natasha denies it. 

The fever hits hard. Natasha is tired all the time and finds herself slipping into the infantile side of her mind more often. She’s often upset because she does not feel good. 

The others think of her as nothing more than a pile of germs and don’t want to touch her with a ten-foot pole. 

A sick Natasha is a clingy Natasha. She wants to be held and carried everywhere because her mindset is slipping and she only trusts Lucia to hold her and keep her safe. 

Lucia runs herself ragged trying to keep up with Natasha and the work Shield sends. She finds herself napping with Natasha because it’s one of the few times she can sleep. 

Lucia ends up having to take a sick Natasha to her psychologist’s appointment because she couldn’t cancel and the others could barely watch Natasha when she wasn’t ill. 

Agents stop and stare at her when she passes because they know that she doesn’t have kids and the one in her arms looks absolutely nothing like her. 

Natasha sleeps through her whole appointment and the psychologist doesn’t ask questions so Lucia doesn’t give answers. 

She signed an NDA anyway. 

Lucia is stopped by her handler, Josh Maxwell on the way out and he stares at Natasha with joy. 

“Ah, it’s so great you came by,” He grins, moving to wrap an arm around Lucia. “I wanted to ask you if you’ve reconsidered my proposition.” 

Lucia wakes Natasha up a little even though she hates it because she might need a quick escape. 

Natasha can hear Lucia’s heartbeat hammering in her chest and tries to shake the fuzzy feeling of the infant side of her brain because Lucia is _scared_. 

“I told you I don’t take kids into the field,” Lucia repeats. “Did you not share words with Hawkeye about that?” 

Maxwell scowls. “We could always send in someone else.” 

“Why is it so important? Huh?” Lucia demands. 

“Do not raise your voice to me, Garcià!” Maxwell barks. 

“Shh,” Lucia shushes him. “Do you want to wake the sick sleepy toddler up!?” 

“I’ll cut your paperwork in half if you do it,” He bargains. 

“You’ve already tripled it because I said no. I would still have more paperwork than before,” Lucia points out. 

“One mission,” He tells her. “It will be safe.” 

“You cannot guarantee that,” Lucia argues. 

“Not one hair on her head will be harmed,” Maxwell reaches out to touch Natasha’s head but Lucia slaps his hand away. He grabs her wrist and twists it in retaliation.

Everything freezes. 

“I know you did not just raise your hand to me,” He replies in a slow voice. 

“She is my ward,” Lucia starts. “She is sick and she is tired. If you wake her up then I will bite your head off because it took me three hours to get her to sleep.” 

Maxwell lets go of her wrist and reaches out to her and places a hand onto her shoulder. “Let’s take a walk.” 

tap. tap. tap. 

Three taps to the bottom of Natasha’s right foot makes her sit up a little because someone in her sleep ridden sick infant mind she knows that it’s a code. 

She realizes that Lucia needs her to cause a scene to escape. 

So she wiggles a little and starts to sniffle before she makes herself cry. Crying hurts her sore throat and her body is riddled with fatigue but Lucia needed her and the quicker she got rid of the man then the quicker Lucia could get them home. 

“I’m sorry, I have to go,” Lucia tells him over Natasha’s sobs. “We’ll talk another time.” 

She makes her escape before her handler can tell her otherwise. She ducks into an empty conference room and quickly works on calming Natasha down. 

“You did so good,” Lucia promised as she holds Natasha close. “I’m sorry I woke you up.” 

Natasha doesn’t care. Something about that man screamed ‘danger’ to her and she almost used her signal. 

Lucia takes them to the cafeteria and buys a yogurt that she feeds Natasha to soothe her throat from the screaming she just did. 

“Does that feel better?” Lucia questioned as Natasha ate. 

“Agent Garcià,” Maria Hill approaches Lucia and Lucia straightens upon seeing the commander. 

“Commander Hill,” Lucia greets her. 

“I was given a request to watch over her while you meet with your handler,” Maria gestured to Natasha. 

“I’m not comfortable handing her over,” Lucia tells her. “She’s ill at the moment commander and incredibly fussy.” 

“He wants ten minutes,” Maria folds her arms. “Why won’t you meet with him?” 

Lucia glances around at the other agents before looking back up at Maria. “I told you.” 

“No, you gave me an excuse, not a reason,” Maria glares at her. “Hand me the child and go to your meeting, Garcià.” 

Lucia grimaces. “Alright. May we please talk in private, commander?” 

Maria raises an eyebrow but nods and gestures for Lucia to follow her. They head into a nearby empty conference room and Maria shuts the door. 

“What is the issue, Garcià?” She questioned. 

“I am avoiding meeting with my handler because…” Lucia fidgets and Natasha wraps her arms around her neck for comfort. “ _No me sentia segura_ ,” She blurts before she realizes she didn’t phrase it in English. “I do not feel safe.” 

“You do not feel safe?” Maria repeats, stance straightening. “What makes you not feel safe?” 

“My handler, ma’am,” Lucia reaches up to pat Natasha’s back when she coughs. 

“You do not feel safe around your handler?” Maria repeats. 

“Yes ma’am,” Lucia nods. 

“Has he acted some way towards you that made you feel unsafe?” Maria questioned. 

Lucia shifts Natasha to one arm so she can pull up the sleeve on her uniform to reveal the bruising starting to form. 

Maria stalks closer and reaches for Lucia’s arm, grasping her forearm and inspecting the injury. “He grabbed you?” 

“He tried to grab Natasha,” Lucia corrects. “I pushed his hand away and he grabbed me.” 

Maria’s eyes shift to look at the sleepy toddler in her arms. “He tried to grab Natasha?” She repeats. 

“I was told by the director that I was off duty for now and would only handle paperwork,” Lucia pulls her arm back to her side as Maria lets go. “My handler is pushing for me to go out onto the field.” 

“And Natasha makes you say no?” Maria questioned. 

“He wants me to take Natasha with me,” Lucia corrects. 

Maria’s eyes shoot up to look at Lucia and they narrow. “He’s pushing you to take her into the field and you declined and he keeps pursuing you.” 

“Yes ma’am,” Lucia nods. “The mission he wants me to take on is dangerous and too risky not to mention the fact that I refuse to bring a child with me onto the field.” 

Maria nods. “Very well. Follow me.”

Lucia follows Maria as she heads to the director’s office. 

“Director,” Maria knocks. 

“Enter,” Fury calls out and Maria opens the door, Lucia filing in before Maria closes the door. 

“Agent Garcià,” Fury looks at her. “What brings you to my office?” 

“There is an issue with Maxwell, sir,” Maria pipes up. 

“Agent Maxwell?” Fury repeats. “I’ve received no complaints about him.” 

“It’s regarding Natasha, sir,” Maria tells him. 

Fury’s eye darts to look at the sick toddler in Lucia’s arms. “What about her?” 

“Agent Maxwell is pushing Agent Garcià to go back onto the field and take Agen-- Natasha with her,” Maria doesn’t refer to Natasha as Agent Romanoff. 

Fury’s eye narrows. “I see. He is not pushing anyone else.” 

“Agent Barton threatened him,” Lucia pipes up drawing attention to her. 

“Why? I was not informed of this incident,” Maria questioned. “You didn’t mention that.” 

“I have refused before and Agent Barton found out what he wanted to do with Natasha and threatened him because he threatened her safety,” Lucia explained. 

“I see,” Fury sighed. “You are not cleared for fieldwork, Agent Garcià.” 

“I know sir. That is why I keep turning him down,” Lucia tells him. 

“I will make sure he knows,” Fury nods. “Report to him tomorrow for a new assignment regarding paperwork you should do.” 

“Sir, one more thing,” Maria steps forward. “Lucia does not feel safe with her handler.” 

“For fucks sake,” Fury growls and Natasha jumps. 

“Shh,” Lucia looks down at the bleary toddler. “It’s alright. You’re okay.” 

“Lulu,” Natasha mumbles, wiggling in Lucia’s arms. “Sleepy.” 

“I know, we’ll be home soon,” Lucia gently bounces her. 

“Is it pushing missions on you that makes you not feel safe?” Fury sighs. 

“It’s assault, correct?” Maria looks to Lucia. 

“Yes ma’am,” Lucia nods. “He grabbed me when I wouldn’t let him touch Natasha.” 

“He grabbed you?” Fury leans forward, noticing the bruising peeking out from below the uniform sleeve Lucia wore. 

“Yes sir,” Lucia nods again. 

Fury hums. “When did this incident take place?” 

“The grabbing or the one with Agent Barton?” Lucia questioned. 

“Both,” He replied. 

“The one with Agent Barton took place a week ago after I checked out from the infirmary. The grabbing happened about a half-hour ago,” Lucia answered. 

“Hill, pull up the feed from that time,” Fury orders. 

Maria pulls out her tablet and types before handing it over to Fury. 

Fury watches it and his eye gradually narrows. “I see,” He hums. 

Natasha wiggles in Lucia’s arms until she can see Fury as she tries to shove the overwhelming part of her mind that wanted to let her sleep. This was important. Lucia needed her. 

“I apologize for the behavior Agent Maxwell displayed,” Fury straightens. “We do not condone his actions towards you and your ward. He will be properly disciplined. Hill.” 

Maria straightened at her name. 

“Who can we transfer Agent Garcià to?” Fury passes her back her tablet. 

Maria frowns as she checks. “All current handlers for agents levels 2-6 are full,” She reports. 

Fury hums in acknowledgment. “You are level two, correct?” 

“Yes, sir,” Lucia nods. 

“Bump her security up to level seven,” Fury instructs. 

Maria’s head snaps up to look at him. “Are you sure? That’s a five-level jump.” 

“I can do math, Hill,” Fury’s eye turns it’s stare to her. “Do it. She’s not staying with Agent Maxell.” 

Maria nods. 

“Level seven will let you protect yourself,” Fury directs his attention to Lucia. “Do not let your handlers put their hands on you in a violent manner. You can retaliate. Anyone who threatens your safety or the safety of Natasha.” 

“I just didn’t want him to hurt Natasha,” Lucia replies. 

“Done,” Maria pipes up. 

“You now have level seven clearance,” Fury tells Lucia. “Do not make me regret it.” 

Natasha coughs and Lucia shifts her to help her breathe easier. “I won’t sir. Thank you.” 

“Was there anything else?” Fury inquired. 

“The files I receive,” Lucia starts. “I receive almost all of levels one and two. Will I expect it to grow more?” 

“Grow more?” Maria repeats. “You should be doing it in your spare time. Your main priority is Natasha’s wellbeing and safety.” 

Lucia frowns at that. “Agent Maxwell had my paperwork tripled as punishment.” 

Fury lets out a groan. “Seriously?” 

“Your workload should not have been tripled. I didn’t approve that,” Maria informs Lucia. “Why did you not bring this to my attention?” 

“I was threatened with demotion for complaining,” Lucia mumbled a little at seeing their dismayed faces. 

“I cannot expect you to do that much work and be the primary guardian of Natasha,” Maria frowns. “Where did you find time to do that?” 

“I didn’t sleep and took naps with Natasha,” Lucia admits quietly. 

Maria reaches up to pinch the bridge of her nose in exasperation. 

“Okay. From now on you are on paid vacation. Natasha is your number one concern. No paperwork or field missions. I don’t want to see you back here unless it’s for your mandated psychologist meetings. That is an order. Is that clear?” Maria was clearly frustrated. 

“Yes ma’am,” Lucia relaxes a little. 

“If Agent Maxwell approaches you again, you inform him to come and talk to me,” Maria instructs. 

“Now fuck off,” Fury tells her. “Unless you have more shit you need.” 

“No. Thank you so much,” Lucia was filled with relief. 

“Don’t forget to pick up your new badge,” Maria tells her as Lucia turns to leave. 

* * *

Lucia couldn’t hide the bruise from a well-trained spy. Clint saw it as soon as she got off the elevator. His eyes narrowed onto it. 

“Who did that?” He demanded. 

“My handler,” Lucia replied.

“That bastard!” Clint swore and Natasha jumped at the noise. Clint tried to move into the elevator but Lucia grabs his arm. 

“ _Cálmese_ , Clint,” Lucia soothes. “Commander Hill and Director Fury handled it.” 

“It was so fucked up that they had to get involved?” Clint grumbled darkly. 

“Knock it off, you’re scaring Natasha,” Lucia snaps and Clint reels back in surprise. “Fury gave me level seven clearance and I’m officially on paid vacation.” 

Clin sighed and runs his hand through his hair. “Sorry for getting angry. How about I watch Nat while you sleep?” 

“I think she’ll just take a nap with me,” Lucia tells him. “But thank you.” 

“Tony likes you,” Clint suddenly comments. “If you have to hurt him, he can hire you some good lawyers. If you need to hide a body, I’m your guy.” 

Lucia grins. “Thank you, Clint.” 

“I told you,” Clint ruffles her hair and she protests. “We adopted you. Families help each other hide bodies, right? I never had a normal family.’ 

“You’re asking the wrong person,” Lucia laughs. 

“Right,” Clint shrugs. “Well, I’ll still help you hide a dead body and make you cocoa afterward.” 

Lucia’s lips quirk up. “He should be properly disciplined. They moved my handler.” 

“Who do you have now?” Clint questioned. 

“Dunno. I’ll get a report stating it and my new contract,” Lucia shrugs. “I’m going to head upstairs and take a nap.” 

“You do that,” Clint nods. 

Lucia heads upstairs to her room and sighs. She sets the diaper bag down and sighs. 

“Okay?” Natasha croaks. 

“Yeah,” Lucia looks down at her. “You did great. I’m sorry that you had to hurt your throat to get us out of that situation.”

Natasha shakes her head. “Help.” 

“Yeah. You helped a lot. Thank you,” Lucia smiles. “I don’t know about you but I’m really tired. How about a nap?” 

Natasha nods and Lucia stands, moving towards her crib. 

“No,” Natasha wiggles and Lucia pauses. “Sleep you.” 

“Alright,” Lucia sighs. “But only because you’re sick.” 

Natasha grins as Lucia plugs in cold air humidifier and makes a wall of pillows so Natasha doesn’t roll off the bed and settles Natasha down between her and the wall. 

“Do you worry?” Lucia quietly questioned. 

Natasha turns to look at her. “What?” 

“About the future. What will happen if Tony can’t fix this?” Lucia’s voice was soft. 

Natasha’s uncoordinated fingers mess with the zipper on her pajamas. She lets out a soft breath. “Scared.” 

“Yeah?”Lucia questioned. 

“Don’t wanna,” Natasha struggles to get the words out. “Grow up ‘gain.” 

Lucia nods. “I understand. I can’t imagine what you must be feeling.” 

Natasha lets out a hiccup that turns to a cough as a couple of tears slide by. 

“You don’t have to keep being tough,” Lucia comments. “I can see you struggle with the other side. Does it hurt to stay in control?” 

“No,” Natasha shakes her head. “Hard.” 

“You know,” Lucia starts. “You don’t have to fight it. You’re safe here. I won’t let anything happen to you. You can let go.” 

Natasha shakes her head. “No.”

“I know you’re scared,” Lucia whispers, reaching out to smooth back some of Natasha’s hair. “But what if fighting it is just making it harder. What if you let go and then when you come back you can think again?” 

“Little bit?” Natasha frowns. “Now?” 

“If you want to drop now I can stay awake and I will keep you safe. If you want to drop later you can drop later. You don’t have to tell me, I’ll know,” Lucia promised. 

“Kay,” Natasha mumbles. “Sleep now.” 

“You’re the boss,” Lucia lets out a small laugh and stays awake just long enough to watch Natasha fall into a gentle sleep. 

She doesn’t last much longer after that.


	9. Chapter 9

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Lucia leaves for her weekly psychiatric appointment at SHIELD.   
> She doesn't come home.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> ¿mi hermana?- my sister?   
> ¿conoces a Lucia?- you know lucia?  
> ¿colegio?- school?   
> un hombre- a man  
> grande- big  
> de miedo- scary  
> una cicatriz aquí- a scar here  
> ¡ese es el!- that’s him!  
> edificio vacio- empty building  
> sin ventanas- no windows  
> ¿puedo ver a lucia?- can i see lucia?

The next time that Lucia went to see her psychologist, Natasha was feeling better and opted to stay home. 

Lucia was supposed to be gone for between two and four hours. 

Natasha waits with the others, unable to sense something was amiss.

Lucia didn’t come home. 

Natasha immediately knew that there was something wrong when it was dinner time and Lucia wasn’t back yet. 

She promised to be back before dinner. 

“Lulu?” Natasha questioned. 

“Lucia’s probably just running a little late,” Clint tells her through mouthfuls of food. 

Tony is the one that feeds her because Tony was the one that Natasha deferred to when she couldn’t be with Lucia. 

The worry started to come when the sun started to go down. 

“Lulu?” Natasha reminds Tony. 

“I don’t know, squirt,” Tony hums. “Jarvis, text Lucia and see where she is.” 

Ten minutes pass with no reply and Tony sighs. 

“If you want something done right, you have to do it yourself,” Tony grumbles before looking down at Natasha. “I’m going to go kick Patchy the Pirate around to see where Lucia is. Do you want to come or stay?” 

“Go,” Natasha knew that despite the others stepping up to the plate that they weren’t prepared to look after her for long periods of time. 

“Okay,” Tony sighs. “Your bag in your room?” 

Tony gathers up the diaper bag and Natasha and heads out. 

They arrive as the sun sets and many agents had gone home. 

Tony enters and heads directly to the director’s office. 

Tony knocks on the door but opens it anyways. 

“Stark?” Maria questioned, going over information with Fury. 

“The one and only,” Tony nods. “Where is she?” 

“What on earth are you talking about?” Fury demands. 

“Lucia. Where is she?” Tony repeats, shifting Natasha to his other arm. 

“Agent Gari á isn’t here,” Maria slowly informs him. “She left three hours ago.” 

Tony’s grin drops off his face. “She left?” 

They straighten. “She did. Did she not arrive back?” 

“We thought she was still here,” Tony growls, reaching up to run a hand through his hair. “She’s not answering her phone.” 

Fear grips at  Natasha , the younger side of her mind wanting to cry for her. 

“You have not had any contact with her since she left?” Fury questioned. 

“No. Are you sure she left?” Tony questioned, his voice becoming pleading. 

“Hill, pull up security footage for the approximate time Agent  Gari á left her appointment.” Fury instructs.

Maria taps on her tablet and pulls up the footage. 

Tony nears them to see, setting the diaper bag by his feet. 

“She left at the right time,” Maria mumbles as they watch Lucia exit the room and start to head towards the exit. 

“Who is that?” Tony taps the face of a man. 

“Agent Maxwell,” Fury frowns. “He shouldn’t have been there.” 

Tony watches as Maxwell’s hand snaps out and wraps around Lucia’s as she passes. 

Lucia retaliates, moving to break the hold and push him against the wall. 

Maxwell swipes his leg out and Lucia’s legs buckle and he takes that moment to pull her head close to his face. He mumbles something and the fight leaves Lucia. 

Lucia’s eyes find the camera and her hand pats her leg three times. 

Natasha perks up because she knew that signal. Three pats meant that there was trouble. 

“Lulu!” Natasha grabs at Tony’s shirt to get his attention. 

“What does that mean? What do three taps mean?” Tony questioned. 

“It’s usually a short signal for SOS,” Maria frowns. “Something happened.” 

“Follow her,” Tony commands and Maria obliges, swiping through the cameras to follow the path that Maxwell and Lucia make. 

Lucia’s eyes were darting around as Maxwell keeps a grip on her uniform to lead her. 

Then they disappear from the camera. The trail ends and it was like they vanished into thin air. 

Natasha can’t help the tears that escape as she cries. 

“Hey,” Tony straightens, adjusting Natasha. “It’s alright. We’ll find her.” 

He looks at Maria. “Would you grab her pacifier from the bag?” 

Maria raises an eyebrow but fishes out the designated item, passing it to Tony. 

“So Agent Maxell abducted her,” Fury lets out a resigned sigh. “She said she didn’t feel safe.”

“When?” Tony’s eyes narrow as he gives Natasha the pacifier. 

“Last week,” Maria frowns. “She didn’t tell you?” 

“She probably told Clint. He hated her handler,” Tony frowns. “I want his file.” 

“We cannot just give--” Fury starts but Tony holds one hand up. 

“I am going to get his file. Either you give it to me or I take it,” His voice was low and dangerous. “Nobody fucks with my boring nanny.” 

“Give him the file,” Fury sighs. 

Maria nods and pulls up the file for Tony to look over. 

“I see,” Tony nods, eyes taking in all the data. “His file is so vanilla that it’s concerning.” 

Tony looks at Maria. “Hold her for a second. I’ll be back.” 

Maria’s eyes grow wide as Tony pushes Natasha into her arms and stalks out of the room. 

Natasha did not like the way Maria was holding her. She wiggles and protests and Maria panics. Natasha spits her pacifier out in protest so that she could cry. 

“For fuck’s sake, Hill,” Fury growls. “It’s a baby, not a bomb. Hold her closer.” 

Maria pulls Natasha closer to her and Natasha latches onto her uniform to pull herself closer. 

Maria’s arms were thin and delicate but they were wrong. They weren’t like Lucia’s safe hands. 

“Lulu!” Natasha sobs, ignoring Maria’s frantic shushing. 

“You’re hopeless, Hill,” Fury sighs. “Give her here.” 

Maria’s head darts to look at him. “Sir?”

“Give me the fucking baby,” Fury holds his arms out. 

Maria all too happily passes Natasha to him. 

Natasha was kinda scared to be in the director’s arms but she had to admit that he knew how to hold her. His arms were strong and he wasn’t going to drop her. 

Fury’s gloved hands rhythmically pat her back as he waits. 

Tony returns, a camera from the wall in hand. “I looked through the security footage and--” 

He stops. 

“Are you holding the baby?” Tony questioned. “I never thought you as a type to hold babies.” 

“Stark,” Maria sighs. “What did you find?” 

“Right,” Tony holds out the camera. “It was taped over. Someone with technological knowledge not only messed with the camera but had the security level to override it without an alert.” 

Tony sets the camera down on Fury’s desk as Natasha turns and reaches her arms out to Tony. 

As much as she trusted the director not to drop her, he scared her. 

Tony leans forward and plucks her from his arms, pulling her closer and humming a little to calm her. 

“Is anybody else missing?” Tony questioned. 

Maria quickly sifts through the agents that had clocked out and gone to bed and the ones that were on missions. 

“Just  Gari á,” She replies. 

Tony lets out a swear and starts to pace. “God damned it, Lucia.” 

“You haven’t heard from her since she left this morning?” Maria double-checked. 

“No. She gave instructions for the baby, said goodbye and left,” Tony sighs. “Can you get agents on this?” 

“You want us to spend time and resources find the rookie agent that watches Natasha?” Fury questioned.

“No,” Tony shakes his head. “I want you to find my Lucy-loo. The agent who doesn’t hesitate to call me out on my bullshit and who sits with Clint when he has nightmares. Find me my family.”

Fury eye’s Tony but nods. “Very well.” 

Tony ponders over something when an idea came to him. “Family… you keep tabs on your agent’s families, right?” 

“Indeed,” Fury nods. 

“Check on her siblings. Uh… Gabriel, Isabella, and Camila.” Tony recalls the breakdown Lucia had in the kitchen. 

“You think he threatened her siblings?” Maria questioned as she taps on her tablet. 

“That is the only other thing I could think of,” Tony sighs. “I mean, there’s Natasha but Lucia knows that we wouldn’t hand Natasha over to a random stranger and she would be with us.” 

Maria stops swiping and her eyes narrow. 

“What?” Tony questioned. 

“Gabriel  Gari á never returned home from school today,” Maria sighs. “The twelve-year-old got on the bus to go home and never made it off.” 

“Why wasn’t it reported?” Tony demands. 

“It was written off as a runaway,” Maria frowns as she reads the report. 

“You think Agent Maxwell abducted a child to terrorize Agent  Gari á?” Fury repeats, eyebrow raised. 

Natasha wiggles unhappily in Tony’s arms and he sighed. 

Maria looks to the squirming toddler.

“Are you able to handle her?” Maria questioned. “You pulled agent  Gari á in because you were scared to take care of her.” 

“Lucia has shown us how to care for her and leaves her with us. I have Jarvis and Pepper and the other Avengers. I think between five of us we can manage a single kid,” Tony tells them. 

“Put finding the cure on the backburners,” Fury commands. “Agent  Gari á and Gabriel  Gari á are now your top priority. Do what you must and relay all information back to us.” 

“Thank you,” Tony’s voice was sincere. He scoops up the bag and turns to leave, pulling his phone up to his ear. 

“Pepper? Yeah, listen-- don’t hang up,” Tony speaks. “Lucia is missing.” 

* * *

The first night without Lucia was absolute hell. 

Natasha couldn’t be satisfied no matter how they rocked or bounced or shushed her. 

She found herself slipping into her younger mindset and tried to stay clear-headed because Lucia needed her. 

After all she had done for her, Natasha owed her. 

“Here,” Tony returns to the room where Pepper was holding Natasha. “Lucia did this when she had to stay in medical.” 

One of Lucia’s pajama shirts is wrapped around her, cocooning her in the scent that her younger mindset associated with ‘safe’. 

But Lucia and her younger brother were missing and the trail went cold. 

Tony takes Natasha from Pepper and starts so sway her so that Pepper could go to bed. 

Once Pepper was out of hearing vicinity, Tony looks down at Natasha. 

“Nat, hey,” Tony mumbles. “Look at me.”

Natasha drags her eyes up to look at him. 

“I know that you’re upset and you miss Lucia. I know that this is really hard for you but you are going to either hurt yourself or completely slip into a younger mindset,” Tony tells her. “I know that you only wanted to do that with Lucia so help me out here. What can I do to help?”

Natasha had absolutely no clue. 

Tony perks up with a sudden thought. “Hey Jarvis, play a recording of Lucia singing.” 

Lucia’s soft voice comes out of his phone and Tony sets his phone onto her chest for her to cling to as Lucia sings. 

It helped. Natasha calms down immensely and Tony could put her down, tucking the shirt in with her and letting her keep his phone. 

“We’ll get her back,” Tony promised. 

Natasha believed him. 

* * *

Gabriel  Gari á was found at four in the morning wandering around the outskirts of town, more than twenty miles from where he was abducted. He had an obvious concussion caused by a wound on his face and was in shock, refusing to speak. 

Shield quickly swooped him up and they contacted Tony to see if anyone of them wanted to speak to the boy. 

“You knew Lucia and she talked about him. That’s more than we have to go on.”

Clint volunteered to go. He had heard about Gabriel’s misadventures in the kitchen during long nights with Lucia when neither could sleep. 

He arrives and he knew the boy was Lucia’s brother when he spotted him. 

The boy had caramel skin and shaggy black hair that hung in his face. Clint could see the dirt on his clothes and the butterfly bandages holding a wound above his eyebrow shut. 

His eyes were trained on the wall and he didn’t move. 

Clint enters the room. 

“Gabriel?” Clint tries. “My name is Clint Barton.” 

Nothing. 

“I’m friends with your sister,” Clint continues. 

Gabriel’s eyes briefly flicker to him. “ _ ¿mi hermana? _ ” 

“Lucia,” Clint clarifies. 

“ _ ¿conoces a Lucia? _ ” Gabriel questioned. 

Clint remembers a little bit of Spanish. 

“Yeah. I’m her friend,” Clint nods. “I need to know about what happened after school yesterday.” 

“¿ _ colegio _ ?” Gabriel repeats. “School.”

“Yeah. What happened after school?” Clint repeats his question. 

“ _ un hombre _ ,” Gabriel mumbles. “Man. There was a man waiting for me.”

“A man?” Clint coaxed. “What did he look like?” 

“ _ Grande _ , big.” Gabriel breathes out. “ _ de miedo.  _ He was tall. _ ” _

“A big scary man. Okay, anything else?” Clint pushed. 

“ _ una cicatriz aquí _ ,” Gabriel reaches up to touch his lower jaw and Clint freezes because he knew who he was talking about. “He was hurt. A scar right here.”

Clint pulls up the file on his phone and flicks through the photos and holds it up. “Is this him?” 

“¡ _ Ese es el _ !” Gabriel nods. “He took me.”

Clint sighs because pieces were fitting together and Clint didn’t like the picture. 

Gabriel was abducted from school by Shield Agent Maxwell. He probably wore out his use of him and dropped the kid off. He was probably only bait for Lucia. 

“Thank you,” Clint breathes out. “Do you know where this man is?” 

“ _ edificio vacio, _ ” Gabriel gestures. “ _ sin ventanas _ . It was dark.” 

That narrowed it down a lot. 

“Thanks, kid,” Clint grins. 

“ _ ¿ _ _ puedo ver a lucia? _ ” Gabriel inquired. “I miss her.”

“She’ll see you as soon as she can,” Clint promised without revealing that Lucia was missing. 

Gabriel nods and Clint leaves the room. 

He lets out a sigh and runs his hand through his hair. 

Why would an agent abduct another? Why did Maxwell want Lucia? Why use Gabriel? 

Clint only knew one thing. 

Natasha was not going to be happy. 


	10. Chapter 10

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Clint thinks it's funny that Maria Hill is scared of children. That's why he has her watch Natasha.

When Lucia said goodbye to Natasha before she handed her over to Tony, she never thought that she wouldn’t be coming back. 

She was approached by her old handler shortly after her psychiatrist appointment. She had tried to fight at first like Fury said she could but he pulled her close and whispered in her ear.

“I have your brother in the car. Picked him right up from Rosewell Academy,” He mumbled. “So you’re going to be a good girl and come calmly and quietly.”

And Lucia doesn’t know if he really has her brother but she would never chance it. But she knew she needed to do something to get attention and show that she needed help.

Her eyes find the camera on the wall and she remembered the signs she made with Natasha. 

Tapping the bottom of Natasha’s right foot meant that she was in danger and needed Natasha to make a scene.

So Lucia makes eye-contact with the camera and taps her right leg three times and hopes that somebody will notice. 

Maxwell leads her out and into a van where Lucia sees Gabriel’s green Ninja Turtles backpack. But there was no Gabriel. 

“The boy is safe,” Maxwell sighs. 

“Where is he?” Lucia swallowed hard. 

“Safe,” Maxwell repeats. “Don’t worry. We won’t hurt him… much.”

“Why me?” Lucia mumbled, pushing her luck. 

Of all the days she went unarmed. 

“Because you have the child,” Maxwell turns to grin at Lucia. 

“Not now,” Lucia frowns. What did he want with Natasha? Why was he pushing for her to go in the field?

Maxwell reached into his coat and pulled out his Shield issued gun. He moves so that Lucia can see it without actually waving it around. It was a silent threat. 

Lucia doesn’t risk it. She needed to find a way to leave a trail without Maxwell noticing. 

Lucia settles for searching out traffic cameras and trying to get her face by subtle shifting her head. 

Maxwell catches her anyway and shoves the gun into her ribs. “Get down.”

Lucia has no choice but to slide between the dashboard and passenger seat, out of view of any windows. 

She wasn’t trained for hostage situations. She was level 2 just a week ago. Now she was level seven but never had any of the training that came with the five level jump. 

She supposed she was just lucky that she could leave Natasha behind this time. She hates to think of what could have happened to her had she come with her today. 

She counts the turns and tries to memorize a map in her head. 

He drives underground and Lucia has no clue where she is because according to the map in her head, this was a park. 

The lights go dark and Maxwell finally parks the car and the doors are pulled open and Lucia is grabbed by gloved hands, yanking her out until she collides with the cold hard ground. Her limbs are quickly restrained and she’s yanked to her feet. 

“Where’s my brother?” Lucia demands, not catching sight of Gabriel. 

“Thirty miles outside town,” Maxwell grins. 

The butt of a gun collides with her head and Lucia is knocked out cold.

* * *

Natasha tried her hardest to be good for the Avengers so that they could focus on finding Lucia. 

And it worked for a little while. If she was quiet then they would sometimes forget about her. 

Pepper started making them check on her every fifteen minutes like Lucia did because they were likely to accidentally ignore her if they didn’t 

The crib in Lucia’s room had been moved to the room Tony shared with Pepper and lined with Lucia’s shirts. 

Without Lucia, Natasha’s infantile side felt abandoned and was inconsolable. 

Tony had set up Natasha’s jolly jumper in the doorway of his lab so that she could watch him work on looking for Lucia. It also got him out of the lab to feed her then he would eat since he was in the kitchen. 

Clint started taking Natasha with him to Shield. He was always amused whenever he passed Natasha off to Maria and the woman panicked because she was the all mighty touch commander and she was scared of babies. 

Steve took Natasha out while he wandered the streets of New York and got used to the new technology. 

Pepper took her into SI once when nobody else could watch her and because they both had red hair everyone assumed that Pepper had a secret child. 

Natasha found a familiar comfort with Pepper that she never had before. The woman holding her while she did paperwork late at night reminded her of Lucia. So she tried to stick with Pepper whenever she could. 

Soon, Lucia had been missing for five days. The trail went cold and kept pinpointing her at multiple locations at once.

Maxwell hadn’t returned to work and went off-grid. His Shield issue gun was found in a river with traces of Lucia’s blood on it. 

Natasha grew irritable without Lucia. She knew she was unhealthily attached to the woman but the infantile side had imprinted on Lucia. She was at war as she struggled to suppress that side. But she didn’t feel safe enough to let go while with the others. 

She was okay with them because she could contain her cries and let them know what she needed. If she let go, she wasn’t sure if she would be safe or if she could trust them to take care of her. Pepper and Tony got tired of her crying after an hour of constant tears. 

And then the day came where none of them could watch her so Clint takes her to Shield and drops her into Maria’s lap. 

Maria was startled, dropping her tablet in order to keep Natasha from toppling off of her lap. 

“Steve will come to get her later,” Clint explained, dropping the diaper bag on her desk before he darts off before Maria could give her back. 

Maria looks down at Natasha and Natasha looks up at Maria and neither speaks. 

Maria then squeezed her eyes closed and let out a deep sigh. “Shit.”

Natasha reached out to latch onto Maria’s uniform, tense in the new environment. 

Maria eventually has to get up and Natasha clings to her fiercely. Maria leaves the diaper bag behind as she has Natasha in one hand, tablet in the other as she moves through the halls. 

Nobody dares to comment on the random child in Maria’s possession. Natasha tries to be easy and rests her head on Maria’s shoulder, trying to relax but not letting her guard down. 

Maria has to take Natasha into a meeting. Fury raised an eyebrow at the toddler in her arms but doesn’t ask. 

The meeting runs long and Natasha gets restless. She’s hungry and irritable. 

She eventually has to get Maria’s attention. She squirms and whimpers and Maria’s eyes snap down to look at her. 

Maria tried to bounce her but that wasn’t what Natasha needed. 

Natasha gets louder and she can feel the glares that others sent at her. 

“Go take care of the baby, Hill,” Fury tells her. It was a command. 

Maria placed her tablet down and stands, pulling Natasha up and exits the room quickly. 

She looked annoyed and frustrated. Natasha feels the overwhelming urge to cry. 

She too was frustrated. She just wanted Lucia. 

Natasha buries her face into Maria’s uniformed shoulder and lets out a few silent tears. 

Maria lets out a sigh and enters her office, pulling the diaper bag up onto her desk.

“What do you need?” Maria questioned, rummaging through the bag. 

Natasha reached towards the bag and Maria moves her closer. 

Natasha grabs the baby cereal next to the bottle of juice. 

“You’re hungry,” Maria’s eyes move to the clock. “Right. Shit.”

Maria grabs the two items and moves back towards the meeting room. 

She settles back down in her seat and propped Natasha up in her lap, spreading a handful of cereal onto the table so that Natasha can eat at her own pace. 

Natasha half listens in on the meeting. She stores away important information for later. She usually had someone help her hold the bottle so that she didn’t swallow air. Natasha’s hands are too uncoordinated and she ended up knocking the bottle over. 

The agent next to Maria catches the bottle. 

“Would you like me to take notes so you can feed her, Commander?” He questioned hesitantly. 

Maria sighed and shoved the tablet into his hands and pulls Natasha up to lean back in her arms. She grabs the bottle and holds it to Natasha’s lips, looking quite unsure. 

Natasha reaches up to pull the bottle closer and closed her eyes to avoid the humiliation of being like this in front of the Commander. 

“Uh, Commander?” Another agent pipes up after a little while. 

Heads turn towards him when he interrupts. 

“You need to burp her before she swallows too much air and vomits,” He hesitantly comments. 

Heads turn as they continue the meeting. 

“Would you like me to assist, Commander?” The man continued. “I have three kids.”

Maria passed Natasha off to the agent and Natasha could tell right away that he was a father by the way he held her. 

When Maria doesn’t move to take her back after the agent finished so he shifts Natasha and bounces her a little, trying to coax her to sleep. 

But Natasha doesn’t want to sleep. It wasn’t safe for her to close her eyes around agents, especially since one had abducted Lucia and terrorized her with her little brother. 

She does let herself relax but doesn’t let her eyes leave Maria. 

Maria was typing furiously on her tablet as she worked. 

When the meeting finally finished, Maria sets her tablet down and takes Natasha back. Natasha latched on, a little betrayed that Maria passed her to some agent she didn’t know when an agent had taken Lucia with unknown motives but the suspected objective was to get her. 

“You are a quiet baby,” Maria mumbled as she packs everything up. 

“Do you want her to scream her head off?” Fury questioned as he stood. 

“I’m just saying…” Maria looks down at Natasha. “What if some part of her is still in there?” 

“I’m sure she would have made much more of a fuss,” Fury waves his hand off. “We need to focus on the missing agent.” 

“Right,” Maria nods. 

Natasha was glad that they didn’t question further. It would complicate a lot of things.

She needed their full attention on Lucia, not at her. So she would settle on just being known as a quiet, content baby. 


	11. Chapter 11

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Lucia was a level two agent only a week ago. She never had any of the training for being a hostage or withstanding torture.  
> She'll have to figure it out as she goes.

The next time Lucia opened her eyes, her hands were bound at the wrist and twisted behind her up in the hair and placed over a hook that fell from the ceiling. Her left eye was stuck shut from the blood that fell when the gun hit her and split the skin open. 

“You’re awake,” Maxwell smiles at her when she shifts to observe the room. He was out of his Shield uniform and in a new black uniform, no visible symbols on it. 

Lucia keeps quiet. 

“I’m so happy that you decided to join us,” Maxwell smiles at her, stepping forward and reaching a black-gloved hand up to touch her cheek and smear away some of the blood that concealed there. 

“You see, I heard that you were put in charge of one very deadly toddler,” Maxwell steps back and clasped his hands behind his back as he tilts his head. “Who has the baby?”  
Lucia was confused at first. She was pretty sure the gun gave her a concussion. “Baby?” 

Maxwell’s eyes grow irritated. “Yes. The child in your care. Who has her?”

“She’s safe,” Lucia mumbled, her arms growing numb in their arched position. She had to stand on her tiptoes to relieve the pain in her shoulders. 

“Who has her?” Maxwell repeats, raising his hand in a fist. 

Three other men enter the room, rolling a cart full of tools. 

“Think carefully now,” Maxwell tuts. “We wouldn’t want you to get hurt.” 

“She’s safe,” Lucia repeats her answer. Did they really not know that Natasha was with the other Avengers? 

Maxwell nods his head at one of the agents who picks up a long metal chain from where it was coiled on the table. 

“Last chance,” Maxwell grins and Lucia clenched her jaw in preparation for the pain she was about to feel. 

Maxwell nods as though he expected the silence. “That’s alright. We have ways of making you talk.”

He lowers his hand and the chain uncoils, one end hitting the floor with a rattle. The other was wrapped around the man’s hand and he pulled his arm back. 

Maxwell steps back with the two other men as the man with chain snapped his arm forward. 

Lucia squeezed her eyes shut, not willing to make a sound. The chain connected with her stomach and left her breathless. 

The man pulls his arm back and snaps his hand out again, this time if collides with her hip. She lost her footing for a moment and pain exploded from her shoulder as her arms were wrenched in the wrong direction.

She wouldn’t talk. Natasha may still have the mind of an adult but she was still in a child’s body and wouldn’t be able to fight back. 

She loses count of how many times the chain connects with her body. She bit her tongue open as she tried to silence her pain. One hit sliced her cheek open and Lucia focused on watching her blood drip to the floor, a small but steadily growing puddle. 

Then the whipping finally stops and Lucia looked up at Maxwell who had his hand up again. “Tell me, are you ready to tell me where the child is?”

Lucia averts her eyes. 

Maxwell stocks forward and grabbed her cheeks in his fingers, squeezing as he jerked her head up to look at him. 

“Where is she?” He growls. Lucia spits a gob of bloody spit into his face. 

His gloved hand connected with her face and he kicked out his leg, swiping her off her feet. 

Something in her arm pops with the new pressure put on it. Lucia squeezed her eyes shut as she tried to breathe through the pain. Her feet find traction and she pushed herself up again, ignoring the numbness in her left arm. 

“Who has the child?” Maxwell repeats.

“Fuck you,” Lucia replied in a mumble. The second agent steps and pulls a baton from his side, extending it to the full length. Lucia doesn’t flinch at the click when it extends. 

Maxwell lowers his hand again and the second man steps up, rearing his arm back and moving to smash the baton against her stomach. 

Lucia loses her breath as her stomach revolts and she loses all the food in her stomach. The vomit swirls on the floor, mixing with her blood. It made the floor slick and harder for Lucia to stand. 

The man hits her again, this time against her shins. 

Lucia tries to breathe through the pain. She ignores the swirling colors as shapes mash together and spots fill her vision. Her ears ring and drown out whatever Maxwell says. 

It hurts so much. It hurts but Lucia won’t scream. She won’t talk. 

She was twenty-two and has never had training for this but she will try her best. She can recall the stories Clint told her early in the morning about missions he had been on. 

She’s brought out of her mind when the hook drops from the ceiling, releasing her hands and she falls to her knees, smashing against the ground covered in bile and blood. Her vision swims and her mouth tastes of copper. She can’t take deep breaths without pain on her left ribs. 

“Where is the child?” Maxwell repeats, crouching in front of her and grabbing a fistful of her hair to yank her head back to look at him. 

“Safe!” Lucia yelps, her head pounding. She feels like her brain is going to melt out of her ears. 

Maxwell lets her go and Lucia falls forward, hitting the ground in a wet smack as she gets a faceful of blood. 

“You’re looking a little dirty,” Maxwell smiles. “Let’s clean you up.”

The first and third men each grab one of her arms and drag her up but she can’t keep steady on her feet. They drag her out of the room and Lucia can see what Maxwell went. 

She tries to struggle in their hold, fear gripping at her heart. 

Her hands were still bound behind her back so she couldn’t push away as they pull her up and over the side of a ledge. 

“Deep breath,” Maxwell grins before he reached out and grabbed a fistful of her hair and shoving her head under the tank of water in front of her. 

The water was cold and shocked her system. Her compromised lungs can’t take in enough air and Lucia frantically struggles to get her body out. 

Don’t panic. She tries to calm herself so that she doesn’t wear herself out. 

Her head is then yanked back up and Lucia spits out the water in her mouth, heaving in each breath of air she can get before her head is shoved back in. 

The pattern continues. Drowning and heaving for air and drowning again. 

It hurts. 

But she learned that if she struggles and then goes limp before she runs out of air then they’ll pull her out before she actually passes out. 

Finally, they pull her back and out of the water, dropping her onto the hard ground. Lucia coughs out the water she had swallowed, taking in each deep breath she can get before they can change their mind and pull her back in. 

“Well?” Maxwell moves forward until his boots touch the puddle of blood-tinged water Lucia was creating. 

“Screw--” Lucia coughs. “--You.”

They grab her arms again and haul her up and Lucia struggles when they pull her back towards the water. 

“Wait! Wait! No!” Lucia begs, wiggling and twisting frantically. 

“Where is the child!?” Maxwell demands. 

“With my big brother!” Lucia finally cries out. “She’s with my brother!” 

* * *

Natasha felt like she was losing her mind more and more each day that Lucia was gone. The smell from Lucia’s shirts had started to fade and the recorded song didn’t work. She didn’t feel safe enough to sleep anymore and got irritated and upset because she couldn’t sleep. 

She knew the others were getting frustrated not only with her but not being able to find Lucia. 

Natasha knew that Lucia was only level two a week ago. She had no training for high-level missions or torture training. 

Lucia was not at all prepared for whatever Maxwell had in store for her. 

“We’ve got a lead!” Clint darts into the lab where Natasha and Tony were. 

“Yeah?” Tony questioned, turning around to look at Clint. 

Clint sets down the box he was carrying and Tony raised an eyebrow, moving forward to open it while Clint picked Natasha up. 

Tony picks up the Shield logo that was ripped from their standard uniform. It was stained with dried blood. 

“This is Lucia’s?” Tony questioned, looking up at Clint, shaking the patch. “This is her blood?”

Natasha leaned over in Clint’s arms to look inside the box and she freezes at the symbol marked on the bottom of the box. 

She knew that symbol. She suddenly knew who had Lucia and what they wanted. 

“Nee!” Natasha needed to talk to Tony. “Nee!” 

Tony turns towards her, setting the patch down and wiping his hands on his pants before reaching up to take Natasha from Clint. 

“Why don’t you go report to Cap,” Tony suggests. “We’ll regroup and discuss what to do later.” 

Clint nods and turns to leave the room and Tony looks down at Natasha. 

“You know something?” He questioned. 

Natasha jerks a nod, reaching towards the box. Tony pulls it forward and hands it to Natasha. 

Natasha shoves a finger at the symbol. 

“You know who has her?” Tony questioned with a little bit of hope. When Natasha nods, he rolls across the room to get his tablet and pull up a notepad app. He props it in front of Natasha. “Who?”

Natasha does her best to type, hard to focus on the letters. 

“Red… room?” Tony repeats. “Red Room?”

Natasha curls her fingers into a fist to stop them from shaking. 

“Okay. Red Room. Isn’t that part of Hydra?” Tony questioned. Natasha nods. “Okay, so Hydra has Lucia. Do we know what they want?” 

Natasha turns a finger to point at herself and Tony frowns. 

“They want you?” Tony mumbled before a lightbulb goes off. “Okay. Maxwell wanted you and knew you were the Black Widow? Maybe they think they have a clean slate. They can raise you to be better than before.” 

Natasha knew that was exactly what they wanted. 

“Hey,” Tony pulls her out of her head as he pulls the box from her grip and sets it back onto the table. “Look at me, Nat.”

Natasha looks up at Tony, vision blurred with tears. 

“We won’t let them take you,” Tony promised. “And we’ll get Lucia back. Nobody will get hurt.”

Natasha just wanted Lucia. She couldn’t believe how attached she got to the young adult but she grew close. 

Both of them had issues making connections. Both of them had trouble trusting. 

But Lucia didn’t hesitate to help her when she was first turned into a toddler and very confused. She had been cold and wet and Lucia takes her from Clint and gets her warm and dry and fed. 

She had imprinted on Lucia. She could trust the woman to take the very best care of her because it seemed that sometimes Lucia knew what she needed even when she didn’t know what she needed. 

Lucia taught the others how to care for her but Lucia doesn’t teach them everything. 

Lucia was a misfit like the rest of them. Abandoned by her mother as a child and bounced through abusive foster homes until Shield eventually snatched her up. A high IQ despite having never finished high school. Knowledgeable about technology and weapons. Disabled a bomb at eighteen. 

Natasha hates that Lucia was now captured by the Red Room and it was all her fault. She wonders how long Lucia will last until she breaks, and she will break because the Red Room is good at what they do. 

It’s been a week since Lucia was taken and all they had to go on was a bloody patch. 

Natasha was just glad it wasn’t a finger or an ear. It was obvious they needed Lucia alive for something and not disabled too much. 

But it was just a matter of what they needed her for. 

* * *

Lucia tried to keep her answers as vague as possible. 

Lucia knew that Shield didn’t have a record of her big brother because she didn’t have one. 

But, a while ago when Clint first learned about her treatment at Shield, he joked that they ‘adopted’ her from Shield. Sometimes they jokingly called each other the dumbest variation of ‘brother’ or ‘sister’ they could. He would call her ‘sissy’ and she would call him ‘bubba’. It was just how their relationship worked. 

But now, she was grateful that she could throw Maxwell off and buy some time.

When she first gave her answer, Maxwell locked her up in a cell while he went to go see who her big brother was. He wouldn’t find any record of it, though. 

So Lucia tries to recuperate the best she can in the little time she has. She tries to do a full-body assessment. 

Her left arm was still numb and Lucia was sure that it was dislocated. There was rope burn on her wrists from the constant motion when she swung while hung. Her right hand danced up along her stomach and chest, counting and feeling ribs. She bit back whimpers when she felt at least two cracked. She had bitten her tongue and the inside of her cheek while trying to hold back screams. She tried to make sure that she hadn’t inhaled too much water and wasn’t dry drowning. 

The man with the baton had come in and cut her Shield uniform off of her as he poked at her ribs. He then gathered the uniform and left Lucia alone in her bra and underwear. 

She was a little glad to get rid of the uniform. It was tight and slimming and it hurt too much to move in but she was too injured to take it off. 

Lucia props herself up against a wall, resting her head against it as she tries to take deep breaths. The air was cold and giving her wet skin goosebumps. Her whole body hurt as she violently shivered, shifting her cracked ribs. 

Lucia was tired. 

But she can’t rest now. She can’t rest until she’s rescued or dead. 

And she really, really hopes it’s the first one.


	12. Chapter 12

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Maxwell does everything he can to make Lucia break.   
> She doesn't. Not until she's safe.

Eight days after Lucia had been taken, the Avengers and a few Shield agents geared up after they found a lead on Lucia. Natasha was staying behind with Pepper. 

Tony talks to Natasha before he goes. 

He holds her close to mumble in her ear. “We’ll get her back. I promise.”

And Natasha knew that he would do everything that he could to get Lucia back. 

She goes easily when Tony hands her over to Pepper, eager for Tony to leave and bring back Lucia. 

She just wasn’t sure how much of Lucia Tony would bring back. 

* * *

Lucia knew that she needed medical help. The waterboarding had made her aspire water and she was developing a wet cough that rattled her cracked ribs with every breath she took. 

Maxwell couldn’t find any information on her ‘big brother’ and was furious. He slams the door open and grabs her arms. “Where is the child!?” 

“With my brother,” Lucia rasps. 

“Where is your brother?” Maxwell demands. 

“With the child,” Lucia replied. It was a back and forth. Lucia gave the same answer each time.

He waves two of the men from before inside and they each grab one of her arms, hauling her to shaking legs and shoving her out of the cell. 

Lucia was too tired to fight. She goes quietly. 

There is a chair in the middle of the room that reminds Lucia of a dentist’s chair. They shove her into the chair and thick leather straps are pulled over her wrists, ankles, chest, and forehead. Lucia tries to calm her rapid heartbeat at the restraints. 

Maxwell appears in the corner of her vision with a grin. “Last chance.”

Lucia doesn’t reply. 

“Very well,” Maxwell waves the first man over. 

He has a blue piece of rubber in his hands and he grabs the bottom of Lucia’s jaw, wretching her mouth open and shoving the rubber bit into her mouth. 

Lucia immediately realizes what was going to happen. 

She closed her eyes as LEDs are stuck to her temples before something metal encased her head. It covered her vision, shrouding her in darkness and Lucia can’t help when her breathing picks up as she bites down on the rubber bit. 

Her nerves light on fire with white-hot pain as electricity flows through her. She lets out a scream into the rubber as her jaw clenches and her body bucks up in an effort to get away but the restraints held her still. 

She doesn’t know how long the pain lasts until the burning goes away and she collapsed into the seat. She can barely breathe before the pain starts again and she lets out a cry, spit dribbling down her chin as she can’t swallow around the rubber bit. She can’t see around her and she sobs. 

When the pain stops, she can hear Maxwell around the metal helmet. “Are you ready to talk?” 

Lucia shakes her head the best she can through the straps and she can hear his sigh before the pain starts again. 

Off and on. Off and on. Off and on.

Lucia can’t focus anymore. She can’t breathe through choked sobs and cracked ribs. She’s tired. She just wants to sleep. 

She’s vaguely aware of hearing gunfire at some point. But the electricity doesn’t stop. It comes in painful waves, bursts of fire through her veins. 

She flinches away when hands touch her head and she can hear someone talking do her. 

She struggles to get away from Maxwell as the chinstrap is undone. 

Light blinds her vision and black spots fill her vision before she realized that someone is talking to her. 

It’s not Maxwell. It’s Clint. 

Lucia isn’t sure if she’s hallucinating and struggles to get away from him, furiously wiggling away from him with tears in her eyes. 

“Lucy, hey,” Clint’s voice is soft. “It’s okay. You’re alright. I’m going to get you out of here.”

Clint tossed the metal helmet aside and pulls the stickers from her temples. He then pulls the rubber bit out of her mouth, gently whispering to her. 

“You’re okay,” Clint soothed, ignoring the gunfire in the hallway that makes Lucia flinch. 

Clint undoes her wrist straps first before moving to her ankles and then finally to her chest strap. He doesn’t mind her mostly nude body covered in only her bra and underwear. He gently brushed some of her wild hair out of her face. 

“I’ve got you,” Clint pulls his bow over his head to rest across his chest before he moves forward. “I’m going to pick you up.”

Lucia bites back a whimper when her bruised body is jostled when Clint lifts her out of the chair. She’s too tired to wrap her arms around his neck and settles for resting her head against his chest. 

She closed her eyes as they move through the halls and she can see the dead bodies with arrow holes in their head. 

“Hey, don’t go to sleep, Lucy,” Clint jostles her a little and she whines in pain. 

“I didn’t tell him,” Lucia mumbled. 

“I know,” Clint soothed, leaning down to press a kiss to her head. “You did so well, sissy.”

“I want to go home,” Lucia whispered, trying her hardest to keep her eyes open. 

“We’ll go home,” Clint promised, kicking open a door and moving through the base. Lucia wasn’t sure how deep they were inside. 

Clint hears something and freezes before he gently sets Lucia down, propped up against a wall as he pulls his bow off his back and notches an arrow. 

He takes down a few agents that come their way before he sets his bow back onto his back and scoops Lucia back up. 

“I’m tired,” Lucia whispered as they near the exit. 

“I know. Just hold on,” Clint begs before he breaks outside and Lucia cries at the bright light, burying her face into Clint’s vest. 

Lucia doesn’t let go of Clint, even when she’s set on something soft and Clint pulls away. 

“No!” Lucia cries before she goes into a coughing fit. 

“It’s alright, I’m just going to get you a blanket,” Clint soothed. Lucia hears someone else enter and she jumps. “It’s just Steve.”

Lucia curls up as Steve and Tony board the jet. A warm blanket falls onto her shoulders and Lucia clings to the warmth. 

“Hey Lucy-loo,” Tony’s voice is soft as he exits his suit. “You aren’t looking too hot. What hurts?”

Lucia isn’t sure where to start. Her chest would probably be an excellent place to start but she can’t’ make her mouth work. 

“Let’s lay down,” Clint’s voice is soft as he reaches out and guides her to lay back on the cot and adjusts the blanket back over her body. 

Tony moves to place a mask over her face but all Lucia sees is the metal helmet and she flinches away with a cry. 

“It’s alright,” Tony soothes. “It’s just oxygen. It’s going to help you breathe, see?”

Tony holds the mask up to his own face and takes a few deep breaths before he moves to sit on the edge of the bed and hold the mask over her mouth instead of strapping it on her head. Clint moves to help Steve fly the plane and Tony is left with Lucia. 

“I didn’t tell,” Lucia whispered. 

Tony looks down and reaches his free hand out to brush her hair back. “You are so strong.”

“They wanted the baby,” Lucia mumbled. “I didn’t tell them.”

“Natasha is safe with Pepper,” Tony tells her, assuring her that they didn’t have the baby. 

Lucia looks up at Tony with glazed eyes. “Tony?”

“Yes, Lucy-loo?” Tony looks down at her. 

“...I’m scared,” Lucia whispered. 

“That’s okay,” Tony assured her. “I won’t let anyone hurt you.” 

“It hurt so much,” Lucia sobs, her ribs protesting with every heaving breath. 

“It’s over,” Tony mumbled, gently stroking her head. “Did you know that Shield sent five of it’s best agents with us to help you?”

“Yeah?” Lucia looks up at him. 

“They took a separate jet,” Tony explained when he saw her looking around for them. “We’re going to the tower and they’re going to report back to patchy the pirate.” 

Lucia nods and closed her eyes. 

“You can sleep,” Tony whispered. “I’ll keep you safe.” 

Lucia nods off to Tony softly stroking her hair. 

* * *

Natasha heard that Lucia was safely extracted from the Hydra base and was currently on her way to medical. She had to wait for Tony to tell her what happened because he was the only one that knew she needed to know and could understand what happened. 

It takes two hours after their arrival for Tony to come up. His clothes were bloody and he looked tired. 

“I’m going to shower,” Tony mumbled to Pepper, passing her and heading into the bathroom. 

Natasha was worried but hoped for the best and prepared for the worst. 

Tony returned after another hour and he takes Natasha from Pepper. He moves to take Natasha to the lab where he could safely talk to her. 

As soon as the doors shut, Tony flicks his wrist and pulls up a hologram. 

“We found Lucia,” Tony starts, flicking through cameras. “She didn’t look good. She’d been tortured and Clint found her being electrocuted. She says she didn’t talk about whatever they wanted which I assume is you.”

Tony pulls up the footage of Lucia currently in the medbay and Natasha can see the bandages that are wrapped around her and the tube down her throat intubating her. 

“They waterboarded her,” Tony continues softly. “She had aspirated a lot of water and it’s forming pneumonia.”

“Lulu?” Natasha wanted to see her but Tony shakes his head. 

“They won’t let anyone under eighteen in to see her. I’m sorry, Nat but you have the immune system of an infant. They can’t risk you getting sick by going to see her,” Tony was apologetic. 

Natasha lets out a sigh to hide the tears gathering in her eyes. 

“You can see her whenever you need to,” Tony gestured to the hologram. “You just can’t be in the same room as her.”

Natasha looks at the hologram and wished that she could just touch Lucia. 

“See?” Natasha looked up at Tony. “Window?” 

Tony deciphers what she wants. “Yeah. I guess you can see her through the window.”

Tony turns and heads out of the lab, carrying Natasha down to the medbay. 

He takes her to the window just outside of Lucia’s room and adjusts Natasha so that she can peek through the window. 

Natasha can finally see Lucia. The woman was asleep, wires coming out of her arms and a tube down her throat. 

Natasha can see two red rings burned onto Lucia’s temples. There was medical tape slithering out of Lucia’s gown, supporting her left arm. There was rope burn around her wrists. 

“She’ll be okay,” Tony promised, pulling Natasha away from the window. “I’ll get the very best doctors.” 

Natasha supposed she should feel relieved but if anything she just wanted Lucia to hold her. Seeing Lucia so close and yet unable to touch her was an awful feeling. 

“C’mon,” Tony adjusts her back into his arms. “You can come back and see her whenever you need. You just let me know, okay?”

Natasha clings to his shirt, her eyes not daring to leave the window in case Lucia was to disappear again. 

“It’s going to be okay, Nat,” Tony promised, holding her closer as they look through the viewing window into Lucia’s room. “I promise.” 


	13. Chapter 13

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Lucia and Natasha reunite and Lucia struggles to recover.

Lucia was in a medically induced coma to allower her battered body to cope with the pneumonia. She had a steady fever of 102 and her lungs struggled to work. 

Whenever Tony couldn’t calm Natasha, he would take her down to the medbay and stand outside the window so that Natasha could see Lucia. 

When Tony was visiting Lucia with Natasha, they witnessed Lucia decline. 

Her fever kept climbing until she eventually had a seizure. 

Tony and Natasha witnessed as doctors rush to keep her airway clear. 

Tony eventually had to call in a favor to Helen Cho who came to take over Lucia’s care. 

The tissue in Lucia’s lungs were damaged from aspirating water and Tony can remember how he had to use the arc reactor to not only help his heart but his lungs after he returned from Afghanistan. 

Helen used an experimental drug to try and regrow damaged tissue in Lucia’s lungs. 

Because Lucia didn’t have any family to make decisions, the decision went to Shield. Maria Hill approved the procedure after talking with Clint. 

Natasha watched through the window with Tony as the drugs are administered and Lucia soon stabilizes. 

Four days after Lucia was rescued, she was woken from her coma. Clint was in the room with Lucia when she woke up. 

Lucia panicked at the wires on her, frantically grabbing at them to rip them off. 

“Hey, Lucy,” Clint moves into her eyesight. “It’s okay. You’re safe. Remember?”

Lucia paused at seeing him before holding an arm out. “Bubba?”

“I’m here, sissy,” Clint nods, reaching a hand out and letting Lucia grab it. 

“Can I have a hug?” Lucia whispered in a hoarse voice from the tube. She reached up, wanting to make sure that he was real.

Clint moves forward and sits on the edge of the bed, pulling Lucia up and into a strong hug. 

Lucia grips onto him tightly before she starts to cry. 

“It’s alright, I’ve got you,” Clint rocks Lucia side to side. “You’re safe.” 

“Where… where is Natasha?” Lucia finally questioned. 

“Tony has her,” Clint replied.

“Can I see her?” Lucia begged, needing to see her safe with her own eyes. 

“I don’t think they’ll let her in,” Clint frowns. 

“Just for a few minutes, please,” Lucia begs. “I just need to see her. Please, Clint.”

“I’ll see what I can do,” Clint promised, helping Lucia lay back and readjusting her blanket before standing and moving towards the door. 

Clint moves out the door to where Tony was already pleading with Helen Cho. 

“Five minutes,” Helen finally allows and Tony grins, bringing Natasha into Lucia’s room. 

Lucia perks up at the sight of them. 

“Lulu!” Natasha can’t contain her relief or excitement at seeing her. 

“ _ Hola, chica _ ,” Lucia greets her. “I’ve missed you.”

Tony looks at her stomach. “Are your ribs okay if I set her in your lap?”

Lucia nods. “Place her on my upper chest,” She reached her arms up.

Tony gently sets Natasha onto Lucia’s chest and Lucia’s hands automatically hold her. Natasha rests her head onto Lucia’s shoulder and snuggles in deep. 

Tony watches with a smile as Natasha finally relaxed for the first time in almost two weeks. Lucia looks down at Natasha with a soft smile as she reached up to smooth back some of her wild red hair. 

“I’ve got you,” Lucia mumbled, rubbing Natasha’s back. 

Natasha closed her eyes, grabbing fistfuls of Lucia’s gown to keep her close and starts to fall asleep. 

“That’s the first time she’s been fully relaxed since you left,” Tony quietly comments as he watched Natasha melt into Lucia’s hold. 

“I was worried,” Lucia mumbled, watching Natasha closely. “I thought that I would break. That I would tell them where she is and they would take her.”

“Hey,” Tony moves towards her, catching her attention. “Nobody can survive torture forever. You know that I was held in Afghanistan for three months. I broke. It’s okay. It’s over now. You’re safe, and she’s safe.” 

“Do you still want me?” Lucia quietly whispered. 

“Want you?” Tony repeats with confusion. “Of course we still want you. Why wouldn’t we?” 

“Because I’m damaged. I can’t look after Natasha right now,” Lucia starts. 

“Nuh-uh,” Tony shakes his head. “None of that. You are important to us. You might of started out as our borning nanny but you became one of us. You became my Lucy-loo and Clint’s sissy and Natasha’s Lulu and Steve’s Lucy. You are like the little sister that I never knew I wanted. We will and always will want you.”

Lucia reached up to wipe away the tears that fell, wincing at the bruising on her face. 

“Five minutes is up,” Helen walks in. 

Tony moves to pick up Natasha and she jumps awake, her hands grabbing onto Lucia again as she starts to cry. 

“It’s alright,  _ chica _ ,” Lucia soothed. “You have to go now. Go with Tony.”

“No!” Natasha shakes her head, grabbing and tugging on Lucia’s gown. “No!” 

“It’s alright,  _ chica _ ,” Lucia pulls Natasha close, soothing her. “You’re alright.”

“Can’t she let Natasha stay just a little longer?” Tony begs Helen. “She barely slept since Lucia was gone.”

“Lucia was her primary caretaker then,” Helen made the observation. “Very well. A few hours. She’s not staying the night.”

“See, it’s alright,” Lucia whispered to Natasha. “You’re not going anywhere. Just relax,  _ chica _ .”

Natasha takes a while to unwind, slowly relaxing back into Lucia’s grip. Lucia hums softly, a small smile on her face as she watched Natasha doze. 

Tony has a seat in a chair by the bed, fiddling with his phone as he starts a new project. 

Maria Hill surprised them by stopping by to check on Lucia. She extended her apologizes for not keeping a closer eye on Maxwell and asked about any information Lucia could give. 

Maria was disturbed to learn that Maxwell was part of a branch of Hydra. If one Shield agent could be Hydra then how many others could be?

Natasha did eventually have to leave but she was much more subdued now that she had been with Lucia. 

Steve and Clint took turns sitting with Lucia while Tony and Pepper looked after Natasha. 

Lucia was doing everything she could to speed her recovery along. When Helen approved her walking short distances, Lucia was out of bed and leaning on Clint as soon as she could. Her ribs still hurt with every breath and moving too harshly sent sharp pain up her stomach.

Natasha was able to spend four hours with Lucia each day. Tony usually took her whenever it was time for her to eat because Lucia could usually feed her and then rock her to sleep where she would then hold her and hum until it was time for Natasha to go. 

Two days later and Helen approved Lucia to leave the medbay and go back to her room. She wasn’t to bend over to carry heavy weights so she still couldn’t look after Natasha properly but whenever Natasha needed her, whoever was watching her could take her to Lucia because Lucia would always know what to do.

Clint did set up a meeting between Lucia and Gabriel so that they could see each other. Lucia held her baby brother tight and mumbled sweet nothings in Spanish. 

Now that Lucia was found, Tony could get back to work on finding the cure to turn Natasha back. He wasn’t getting much further than before because he was working with some magical element that he didn’t fully understand. 

When Lucia was feeling better and was on the mend, Steve sat her down and told her something they had kept from her. 

When they rescued her, there was no sign of Joshua Maxwell. They were unable to find him at the time as they were more concerned with getting her out and getting her medical treatment. 

For the time being, Lucia was on medical leave from Shield. She wasn’t to leave the tower for her own safety and Tony was willing to pay to get her psychiatrist from Shield to make visits to the tower instead of her going to base. 

Lucia and Natasha kept seeking each other out as if they were afraid of the other disappearing. Tony had woken up once to Lucia standing over the crib in the room he shared with Pepper. He was startled at first until he realized that Lucia’s breathing was shaky and he recognized the signs of a recovering panic attack. 

He stands up and moves Lucia to sit down and carefully transfers the sleeping toddler into her arms so that she could hold her. 

“She’s safe, Lucy-loo,” Tony mumbled in a hushed whisper. 

“I thought I was going to die,” Lucia admits in a breathy whisper. “That Maxwell was going to kill me. I was… hoping he would kill me before I broke. I didn’t want him to hurt you guys.”

“Oh Lucy-loo,” Tony sits next to her. “It’s going to be alright. I know that it doesn’t feel like it right now but things will get better. I promise.”

“She was just supposed to be an assignment,” Lucia muttered as she looks down at the sleeping baby she held. “Watch over her until she was turned back.”

Lucia looks up at Tony with tears in her eyes. “I didn’t mean to… I got attached.”

Lucia’s eyes fall back onto Natasha as she reached up a hand to gently stroke her cheek. “I love her, Tony.” She confessed in a choked tone.

Tony had no doubt about Natasha’s feelings for Lucia after seeing her react to Lucia missing. None of them had meant to get attached either.

“She loves you too, Lucy-loo. We all do.”


	14. Chapter 14

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> With Maxwell still on the run, Fury moves Lucia and Natasha to a team in Shield. Unfortunately for him, he doesn't realize Natasha still has the mind of an adult and placed the two with a man long thought dead.

Lucia knew that Natasha had struggled being apart from her for so long. She tried to be physically present more often. She held Natasha more than she did before and indulged in more childlike caretaking while handling Natasha. 

Natasha didn’t argue, soaking up any affection that Lucia gave her, terrified to let her go. 

Lucia takes over Natasha’s primary care despite not being approved to do so. Her ribs were still sore and too much strain made her wheeze but Lucia carries Natasha around and bends over to pick up and set her down. 

Of course Lucia is still dealing with the trauma. She can’t bathe or cover her face with water. She can’t be in Tony’s workshop because it reminds her of the lab at Hydra. 

Lucia and Natasha weren’t allowed out of the tower now that Maxwell was still loose. Anything that they needed was to be ordered online or told to someone to pick it up. Usually Steve would swing by the store after his run and get whatever they needed. 

Of course this meant that Lucia couldn’t take Natasha out to experience some basic childhood experiences. No going to the park or feeding the ducks or anything they couldn’t do from the tower. 

Natasha didn’t seem to mind being cooped up. She liked to sit with Lucia and was content to just lay on her chest while Lucia does whatever it is she does. 

That lead to the duo watching a ton of Disney movies. 

The team would usually join them during their favorite movies and Steve would join them to catch up. 

Steve enjoyed Snow White while Clint liked Robin Hood and Tony was a fan of Toy Story. 

Lucia was a fan of Finding Nemo, having watched it repeatedly with her siblings when she was younger. 

Natasha had never really watched very many movies and the bright colors and catchy tunes kept her attention on the movie and brought them enjoyment. 

Because of Lucia’s kidnapping, Natasha wouldn’t sleep unless she was being held by Lucia. She got distressed if Lucia wasn’t near and would cry until Lucia held her. 

Lucia knew that her being torn apart could have brought attachment issues to the infantile side of Natasha’s mind that had recognized her as her primary caretaker. 

So Lucia held Natasha. Pepper bought her a baby sling so that she could carry Natasha around without having to use her hands and could do other things. So Natasha was just propped up on Lucia’s hip while she went about her day. 

Lucia had trouble sleeping. She would wake up screaming ‘The baby is safe!’ and then have to check on Natasha. She ended up taking naps with Natasha around one of the others so that they could wake her up if she was having a nightmare and keep Natasha safe if she thrashed. 

Lucia did notice how little Natasha tried to make herself and how she tried to fade into the background. She had seen some of the others forget she was there because she was so quiet. 

Lucia doesn’t reprimand her. She doesn’t call her out on it. She just holds her close and promised that she was safe and that she would keep her safe and happy. 

Lucia wants Natasha to know that she’s safe. Lucia won’t let Natasha be left behind or deprived of a childhood like before. 

It was easier to be together now. It wasn’t quite as awkward for Lucia to look after Natasha. 

They were just what each other needed. 

* * *

Towards the end of the second week of being cooped up in the tower, Director Fury and Maria Hill showed up at the tower. 

“We’re temporarily relocating Lucia and Natasha to a team I trust,” Fury tells them. “She’ll stay there until Maxwell has been apprehended. You will not be allowed to visit but can make calls.”

“You can’t just snatch them away!” Tony protests. 

“This is an order, not a suggestion. She is still a Shield agent under my orders. She will be moved this afternoon,” Fury tells them. 

Natasha was not happy about being moved. She didn’t trust Shield so much anymore after finding out part of it was Hydra. She didn’t feel safe leaving but she knew that Lucia wasn’t going to let any random agent watch her. 

Maria comes back later to pick up Lucia and Natasha. The team said their goodbyes and Tony gives Lucia a new tablet with Jarvis on it so that they can video chat. He also gives her an emergency beacon in a bracelet hidden under a charm. 

“The team doesn’t know the whole story with you,” Maria confessed as she drives. 

“What’s my cover?” Lucia immediately questioned, frowning. 

“You’re under the radar to stay safe. They don’t know about Hydra or Natasha,” Maria’s eyes dart to look at the toddler sleeping in Lucia’s lap. “As far as they know, she’s your daughter you adopted after being the only survivor of a mission you were on.”

“And they don’t know Natasha and won’t put her red hair with the name?” Lucia questioned, raising an eyebrow. 

“You named her after your friend,” Maria replied. “Nobody knows who the Black Widow associates with.”

“Fury trusts them even if he has to lie?” Lucia finally sighed, adjusting the toddler in her lap. 

“He does,” Maria confirmed as they pull up to the base. 

Maria takes Lucia’s bag as Lucia pulls Natasha up into her arms, careful not to jostle the sleeping toddler. She followed Maria into the base, eyes flickering about to take it all in. 

“Welcome,” A voice greets them and Lucia looks up at the team that stood there. 

“Coulson,” Maria nods at the man and Lucia’s eyes widen a fraction. She had heard all about Coulson from Clint and his sacrifice during Loki’s invasion. “This is Lucia and her daughter, Natasha.”

Lucia knew that Natasha was going to be overwhelmed with the new information. She could see a massive tantrum in the future. 

“Lucia,” Maria starts, catching her attention. “This is team 6-1-6. Lead by Phil Coulson.”

The team members go down a line introducing themselves. 

There was Melinda May, Grant Ward, Jemma Simmons, Leopold Fitz, and Skye. 

Maria pulled Lucia aside just before she left and told her to keep Coulson a secret. Lucia hated to lie to her family but nods. It was safer at the moment. 

The team had dinner together shortly after Maria’s departure. Natasha was worn out and slept soundly in Lucia’s arms. 

“I can hold her while you eat,” Jemma offered when she saw Lucia struggle to eat with one hand. 

“I’m okay, thanks,” Lucia replied, not trusting anybody on the team. They could be Hydra. She was not leaving Natasha with them. 

Natasha starts to stir about halfway through dinner and when she finally wakes up, she sees the new team. 

Lucia had already put her silverware down, ready to leave with Natasha.

And like she suspected, Natasha cried. 

Hard. 

She sees Coulson and she screams and sobs and Lucia is quickly on her feet, tucking Natasha close to her chest and humming to her, mumbling reassurances as she paced.

It takes half an hour for Natasha to stop sobbing, reducing her to sniffling, clinging to Lucia with everything she had in her. 

Lucia can tell that Natasha desperately wanted to put up a mask and not be reduced to a cry baby but couldn’t fight with the other side of her mind. 

“It’s alright,” Lucia soothed. “I’ve got you,  _ chica _ .”

Lucia eventually has to rejoin the team with the stuff to make a bottle and feed Natasha her dinner. The toddler had resorted to stuffing her face into the crook of Lucia’s neck to avoid looking at anything. 

Lucia let her do whatever she needed to do in order to feel safe. 

There was a crib set up in Lucia’s bunk but she lets Natasha sleep with her that night. She knows that even the adult Natasha would struggle with seeing Coulson, the child side of her mind only enhanced those feelings. 

Tony calls early in the morning to check in on them. Clint wants to know who they’re with and pouts when Lucia replied with “classified.”

Steve had told her that he had seen some suspicious activity while he was on his morning jog and that he was glad that she was safe. 

Lucia didn’t want to leave Natasha alone while she showered so she left her with Coulson, the only person on the team she even remotely trusted. 

Because she was still injured, showering took longer than usual. By the time she finished, her chest was aching and her wrists were sore. 

Lucia moves back to Coulson’s office to see that he was on the phone. 

What she didn’t see was Natasha. 

Fear grips at her chest. “Where’s the baby?” She spits. 

Coulson turned to her, surprised at the venom in her tone. 

“Where’s my daughter!?” Lucia demanded once again. 

“She’s with Skye,” Coulson replied, putting the person on the other end of the phone on hold for a moment. 

Lucia turns and darts out of his office and towards where she hoped Skye would be. 

She can hear Natasha crying as she gets closer and she all but bursts into the kitchen. 

The team was crowded around Natasha, trying things to get her to stop crying. 

“Move,” Lucia pushed them out of the way and grabbed Natasha from Skye’s arms. 

Natasha immediately quiets down, clinging to Lucia as the young adult tries to calm her down. 

“You came in here like a woman rabid,” Ward comments. 

“My daughter doesn’t have a good past with strangers. Being held by new people freaks her out,” Lucia explained. 

“How is she supposed to get to know us if we can’t even touch her?” Fitz inquired. 

“With me around,” Lucia replied, eyes narrowed. “I am grateful that you’ve taken us onto your team for the time being but I will not tolerate you distressing her. She is mine and if anything happens to her then I will personally make you pay.”

Lucia turns and carries Natasha out of the room and back to their bunk to calm down. 

“I’m sorry,” Lucia apologized to her as they enter their bunk. “I didn’t realize that Coulson would hand you off like that. Are you okay,  _ chica _ ?”

“Wanna go home,” Natasha mumbled into Lucia’s shirt. 

“I know,” Lucia soothed, swaying Natasha gently. “It’s only until they’ve found Maxwell.”

Natasha moved to stick her thumb into her mouth but Lucia gently guided it away when it brushed her bottom lip and replaced it with a pacifier. “I know you’re stressed. Everything will be alright.”

Lucia coaxed Natasha to relieve some of her feelings and cry. Natasha did, a silent cry where Lucia only felt her tears soak into her shirt and her breath stuttered unevenly. 

“I’ve got you,” Lucia promised softly, holding Natasha tight despite the pain in her ribs. 

* * *

The first time the team was called out on a mission, Lucia volunteered to run backend with FitzSimmons. Natasha was tucked in the sling from Pepper on Lucia’s side as the woman mans the comms.

“We’ve got a bomb!” Ward called through his earpiece. 

“Get out of there!” Coulson replied. 

“I can’t!” Ward’s voice was tense. “The whole place will blow before we could get out.”

“Describe it,” Lucia interrupted. 

“What?” Ward was confused at her interruption. 

“Describe the bomb!” Lucia snapped at him. 

Natasha jumps when Lucia’s voice became raised. 

Ward goes on to describe the bomb. 

“Listen to me carefully,” Lucia starts. She looks down at Natasha with an apology in her eyes before she takes the toddler out of the sling and passed her to Jemma. 

Lucia works on sketching the bomb out on paper and starts to guide Ward through dismantling it. 

“Do you have something sharp?” Lucia demanded. 

“I have my knife,” Ward confirms. 

“You have three blue wires, correct?” Lucia looks over her drawings. 

“Yes,” Ward agrees. 

“Slice the first wire,” Lucia instructs. “And then immediately slice the white one. The small LED should turn a different color.”

It was quiet for a few moments before Ward replied. “It’s a blinking red.”

“There should be a battery about the size of your thumb. Do you see it?” Lucia continued. 

“Uh,” Ward hesitates as he looks. “There’s something here that’s yellow and that size.”

“Any markings?” Lucia continued, her pencil moving. 

“A34S,” Ward answered. 

“Pull it out,” Lucia tells him. 

“Okay. Here we go,” Ward was quiet before he lets out a sigh. “The timer stopped.”

“Congrats agent Ward, you just dismantled a bomb. Now get out of there,” Lucia replied before stepping back. 

Fitz stepped forward and picked up her sheets of paper depicting the bomb as Lucia takes Natasha back from Jemma and secures her back into her sling. 

“How did you know how to do that?” Jemma questioned with awe. 

Lucia shrugged. “Something I picked up.”

The team arrives back safely and Lucia is called into Coulson’s office. 

“Sit,” Coulson points to a seat and Lucia sits stiffly in the chair, bouncing Natasha slightly. 

“Where did you learn information about defusing a bomb?” Coulson’s voice was hard. Lucia knew he was interrogating her. 

“I learned in a book,” Lucia replied.

“A book?” Coulson repeated, unamused. 

“When my brother was little, he was fascinated with robots. He got a book about how to make them. He lost interest quickly but I snatched the book up and learned to build. I expanded my knowledge and built things. When I was eighteen, there was a bomb attached to the turbine of an airplane I was to board. With nothing but scraps of metal around me, I dismantled the bomb, discovering it to be eerily similar to building robots,” Lucia tells the story. 

“You learned how to build bombs from a book about robots?” Coulson repeats. 

Lucia shrugged, looking down at Natasha. The toddler was staring up at her in confusion and concern. 

“If you don’t mind sir, it’s nap time,” Lucia tells Coulson, standing and cradling the toddler close to her. When Coulson makes no move to make her stay, Lucia exits his office. 

“Hey,” Ward catches up with her quickly on the way to her bunk. “Listen. I just wanted to thank you. I honestly thought I was going to blow up in there.”

“You are protecting me and my daughter. In return, I’ll protect you,” Lucia replied. “I’m glad that you are alright.”

The rest of the day was relatively quiet. Lucia worked with Natasha on learning how to walk, balancing and moving across the small bunk. 

Tony called as usual to give a report on Maxwell’s status and to check up on them. 

That night, Lucia snuck out of her bunk to grab a drink to calm her nerves after having a nightmare. She trusted Natasha would be safe enough for a few moments. 

On her way back to her bunk, she could hear a large crash before it went silent. She expected to hear a yelp of pain or grunt of frustration but it was quiet. 

She moved towards the lab where she discovered the crash had attracted a small crowd. 

Her eyes are immediately drawn towards Fitz, who was staring at a smashed machine on the ground. His hands were shaking and his breaths were coming out uneven. 

Lucia all to well knew the signs of a panic attack. 

Lucia stepped into the lab, making her way directly towards Fitz. 

“Hey,” Lucia’s voice was soft as she sets her drink onto the nearby table. “Was that your creation?”

Fitz lets out a jerky nod, eyes still trained on the metal. 

“You must be very upset that it was ruined,” Lucia moves closer and reached out to put a hand onto his shoulder. 

“It took so long,” Fitz choked out. 

“You can always rebuild it,” Ward suggested. 

“Hey,” Lucia gets Fitz’s attention, her hands moving to grab his shaking ones as she steps in the way of the machine on the ground. “You’re having a panic attack. Have you ever had one before?”

Fitz’s breath stuttered as he looks at her in confusion.

“I was dared in fifth grade to learn the whole periodic table. Do you know the periodic table, Fitz?” Lucia inquired softly. 

Fitz jerks his head in a nod. 

“Repeat after me. Let’s name Actinoids,” Lucia tells him, squeezing his hands to ground him. “Actinium. Thorium. Protactinium. Uranium. Repeat.”

Fitz repeats through a stutter. 

“What comes after that?” Lucia coaxed. 

“Nep-neptunium,” Fitz mumbled. “Plutonium. Americium. Curium.” 

His breathing was starting to even out, his hands gripping onto hers. 

“Good,” Lucia smiled gently. “Berkelium. Californium. Einsteinium. Fermium. Can you name the last three?” 

“Mendelevium. Nobelium. Lawrencium,” Fitz finished, his breathing finally normal. 

“How are you feeling now?” Lucia inquired. 

“Better,” Fitz breathed out. “Thank you.”

“It’s late. I’ll help you clean up and you can start fresh tomorrow,” Lucia tells him. 

The others had left while Lucia had calmed Fitz down and Lucia helped him clean up briefly before saying her goodnights and ducking back into her bunk. 

Natasha was awake and crying and Lucia swooped her up. 

“I’m so sorry,” Lucia apologized. “I didn’t mean to be gone for so long. You must have gotten frightened when I wasn’t here, right?”

Natasha grips onto Lucia tightly as though she would disappear again. 

“Don’t go,” She whimpered into Lucia’s pajama top. 

“I won’t,” Lucia promised. “I’m right here.”

Lucia may still be healing from being tortured and Natasha was still healing from being ripped away from Lucia but they were together again. Even if it was with agents they didn’t trust and away from the Avengers. 

  
  
  



	15. Chapter 15

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> When Lucia is called back into the field on an emergency mission, she goes into a flashback that triggers the alarm. Her big brother isn't happy to hear that Shield sent her back into the field.

"You're going back into the field,” Coulson informs Lucia. 

Lucia adjusts Natasha in her arms, a frown forming on her face. “I can’t. I’m on leave.” 

“This is an order from the director,” Coulson tells her. “You’re going in with Fitz.”

“And what of my daughter?” Lucia questioned. 

“She’ll be safe here,” Coulson promised. 

Lucia could already feel Natasha’s fingers curling into her top, a silent plea for her not to leave. 

“I’m still recovering from my time with Maxwell,” Lucia protests. 

“I know, I’m sorry but the director needs you. He wouldn’t ask you if he could ask someone else,” Coulson looks genuinely apologetic. 

The hold Lucia had on Natasha tightened minutely. She wasn’t ready to leave Natasha or go back into the field. 

But she couldn’t disobey an order. “Very well.” 

“You and Fitz leave early tomorrow morning. Ward will drop you off and we’ll be waiting for extraction,” Coulson promised. 

“And Natasha?” Lucia pushed, needing to know where she would be. 

“She’ll be right here waiting for your return,” Coulson promised. He reached out to touch Natasha but she shrunk away from his touch, glaring at him as she curled further into Lucia’s arms. Coulson straightens. “Jemma and Skye can watch over her.”

“And they know how to look after a baby?” Lucia double checked. 

“Uh…” Coulson frowned, stammering for a moment. “I’m not sure.” 

“Well find out because I won’t leave her if it isn’t safe,” Lucia tells him firmly. 

Coulson nods and Lucia turns, exiting the room and heading straight to her bunk. 

She could feel the tension in Natasha. Neither of them were ready to leave each other yet. 

Lucia ended up calling Tony and explaining what had happened. She made him swear to come and get Natasha if she didn’t contact him when her mission was supposed to be over. 

He promised. He also promised to come and look for her should she disappear. She told him the name of the agent she was going with. She figured that was safe enough information.

And with some time before dinner, Lucia went to go find Jemma and Skye. 

Jemma was a bubbly girl that would coo and fawn over any baby, Natasha included. Natasha didn’t really like the baby voices or taps on the nose, they irritated her. Lucia had Jemma hold Natasha but the toddler was having none of it and Lucia eventually had to take her back. 

Lucia whispered a plea for Natasha to try and get along with them but Natasha shakes her head and tucks her face into the crook of Lucia’s neck. 

Lucia asked Skye if she had any experiences with infants. 

“I was a foster kid and the older ones practically raised the younger ones. I’ve got plenty of experiences with little ones,” Skye promised and Natasha took to Skye a little more than she did to Jemma. 

The mission for Lucia would take two days. She was going undercover with Fitz into a science facility to gather blueprints for a large weapon they were building. If Lucia could, she was to fiddle with the device and set back the work on it. 

Lucia lets Natasha sleep with her that night, tucked close to her. But Natasha doesn’t sleep. She clings to Lucia with worry and anxiety. Lucia holds her close and brushes her fingers through Natasha’s wild red hair while she hums. 

“Don’t go,” Natasha pleads, clinging to Lucia with everything she can. 

“I have to go,  _ chica _ ,” Lucia was apologetic. “I’ll come back to you. I promise.” 

“Wanna go home,” Natasha whimpered. 

“We’ll go home soon,” Lucia promised, hoping that she was correct. “Sleep, I won’t leave without letting you know. You’re safe. I’m right here.” 

Lucia knew that if Natasha didn’t sleep now that she wasn’t going to sleep while she was away and would be majorly tired. 

“Sleep,  _ chica bonita, _ ” Lucia hushed Natasha’s protests. “Natasha, look at me.”

Natasha looked up at Lucia’s firm voice. 

“Listen to me. Okay?” Lucia tells her, her voice is serious. “I promise that I am never going to leave you. I will return. I will be by your side until you tell me to leave, okay? I’ll be there, even when you’re grown up again. I promise.”

* * *

Lucia leaves the next morning. It hurt to leave Natasha hearing her cry for her as she walked with Fitz to the plane that would drop them off. 

Natasha could do nothing but watch Lucia leave from where she was tucked in Skye’s arms. She sucked fervently on her pacifier in hopes of squashing down the anxiety that threatened to rise up. 

“Whelp, she’s gone now,” Skye sighed, looking down at Natasha. “Just you and me now, kiddo.”

Skye heads back onto the Bus and Natasha grips Skye’s shirt tight and pulls her closer. 

Her arms just weren’t safe like Lucia’s. 

“Aw, come one kiddo, your mom will be back soon,” Skye wiped away a tear that Natasha didn’t realize she had shed. 

Lucia on the other hand, was taking it harder. She wasn’t ready to go back into the field, especially with Fitz not being trained as an agent. 

They were dropped off and scoped out the place overnight and all throughout the next day. They took notes of patrols and guards. 

The second night, they struck, entering the building and sneaking inside, hiding from the guards. 

Fitz hacked through the doors and they silently took down guards with the night-night gun. 

As Fitz copied the blueprints of the weapons, Lucia fiddled with them, inspecting the insides and making small changes that would mess with the end product. 

Her finger slipped and she got shocked on a wire. Startled, she jumped back and hit the wall, triggering an alarm. 

“Shit!” Fitz cussed, looking over at her. “C’mon, we got enough.”

But Lucia wasn’t behind him as he started towards the door. He looked back and she was wide eyed, shaking as she stared at the wire that electrocuted her. 

“Hey, Lucia,” Fitz hissed, heading back towards her. “We need to move.” 

Lucia was breathing short breaths, skin pale as her hands shook. 

“Lucia? Hey,” Fitz recognized the signs of a panic attack. He researched them after his own. “Look at me. It’s alright.” 

“Maxwell,” Lucia gasped. 

Fitz looked around them to make sure it was safe before focusing on her again. “He’s not here. Breathe with me. Focus.”

Lucia heaves fast and heavy breaths. 

“Think of your daughter,” Fitz blurts. “What was she wearing when you left?” 

Lucia takes a few moments to think about what she put Natasha in that morning before she left yesterday. She goes on to describe it to Fitz through stuttered breaths. 

“What about that song you hum to her? Huh?” Fitz grasped at straws when he saw that Lucia wasn’t calming. “What is it called? Can you sing it for me?” 

Lucia tries her best to hum the song between pants for air. Fitz grabbed her hands and squeezed them tightly. 

“Good, good,” He encouraged her when she started to calm down. 

Lucia’s face scrunched in pain and Fitz frowned. “What’s wrong?” 

“My ribs,” Lucia mumbled, reaching for them. “They’re still injured. I pulled them breathing too hard.” 

“Can you move?” Fitz questioned, worried. 

Lucia nods and Fitz lets out a sigh of relief. 

“Okay. We need to go. Here,” He passed her the ICER. Lucia takes it and stands up with Fitz’s help. The mission went well enough. Fitz called in extraction as they stumbled towards the exit. 

But the ICER jammed and Lucia had tossed it and grabbed the gun from the guard, turning it around and shooting him in the face. 

Fitz went pale at the overwhelming amount of blood as Lucia’s face went blank when she checked the gun for more bullets. 

Lucia killed three more before they reached the exit and made their way towards the extraction point. 

Fitz looked over Lucia, covered with backsplash of blood with flecks on her face. “That went well, huh?”

Lucia looked at him before looking down at her burnt finger she electrocuted. “I wasn’t supposed to be back in the field yet. I messed it all up.”

“You saved my arse,” Fitz pointed out as the jet taking them landed. “C’mon. Let’s get you home to your daughter.”

Ward looked back at them and asked how it went. Fitz and Lucia were quiet on the way back. 

Back at the base, the others heard the call for extraction and Jemma wanted to take Natasha to go wait for Lucia at the landing pad. Coulson, May, and Skye all joined in waiting for them to return. 

“Look, there’s mama!” Jemma chirped to Natasha as the jet landed and the ramp lowered. 

Ward exited first, followed by Fitz and then by Lucia. 

Jemma’s eyes went wide and turned Natasha around so that she didn’t see the massive amounts of blood coating Lucia. 

“Are you alright?” Skye blurts. 

“It’s not mine,” Lucia croaked. 

“What happened?” Coulson questioned softly. 

“I shouldn’t have been in the field,” Lucia tells him, her voice firm. She was on the edge of a massive panic attack. 

“Do you need anything?” Skye awkwardly asked. 

“I want my brother,” Lucia mumbled, feeling the sticky blood as it congealed on her skin. 

“Who is your brother, we might be able to get him,” May finally piped up. 

“Clint Barton,” Lucia replied and Coulson and May’s eyes grew wide. 

“I’ll ask the director,” May promised Lucia. “Go shower. You can’t hold your daughter covered in blood.”

Lucia heads to the showers but doesn’t break under the hot water as she scrubs the blood from her skin. She leaves half an hour later with not a tint of red on her skin. 

She heads right to Jemma and immediately takes Natasha into her arms. 

She can feel Natasha’s concern as the toddler snuggles closer to her, fingers fisting themselves into her shirt once more. 

She ends up curled up on the couch in the lounge, talking softly with Jemma and Skye when a hand touches her shoulder. 

She jumped, yanking Natasha closer as she whirls around in preparation to attack when she comes face to face with Clint. 

“Clint!” Lucia jumped up and smashed Clint in a one armed hug, careful of Natasha. 

“Hey there sissy,” Clint’s voice was soft. “Miss me?” 

“Too much,” Lucia mumbled into his chest as he took Natasha from her. Natasha goes willingly, latching onto Clint instead as he greets her. 

“Hey there squirt,” Clint grins at Natasha. “You being good?”

Natasha nods, eyes falling onto Lucia in concern. 

Skye awkwardly silently offered to hold Natasha so that Clint could focus on Lucia. He looked her over before passing Natasha to her as he wrapped both arms around Lucia tightly. 

Lucia snuggled into him, content that Clint would protect her. He had gotten her away from Maxwell, he would protect her here. 

“I messed up in the field,” Lucia mumbled the confession into Clint’s shirt. 

Clint moved to hook an arm under Lucia’s knees and scooped her into his arms. “Which way is her bunk?”

“I can show you,” Fitz offered, jumping up and guiding Clint to Lucia’s bunk. 

Clint talked with Lucia, understanding her fears and comforting her until she fell asleep. He then left back to the main area where Skye was with Natasha. 

He takes Natasha from Skye. “Who’s your senior agent?” 

“Uh, that would be--” Jemma is cut off. 

“Me,” May steps into the room. 

“You’re back in the field,” Clint raised an eyebrow in surprise. “I need to get on the phone with Maria. She won’t answer if she knows it’s me.”

“What premise do you need to speak with her?” May inquired. 

“Just give me the phone, Mel,” Clint frowned, visibly frustrated. 

May hesitated but eventually offered out her phone. Clint shifted Natasha to one hand arm while he took the phone and called Maria. 

“You said she was on leave,” Clint snarled into the phone as soon as Maria answered. 

The rest of the team still in the main area stared at him with disbelief as he argued with Maria. 

“I don’t care if you needed her expertise, she wasn’t ready. She hasn’t seen her therapist in weeks and already stressed enough about Natasha and her siblings and Maxwell. She had a flashback during the mission. She thought she was getting tortured again!” Clint snapped into the phone, gently patting Natasha on the back to calm her when she jumped at the raised voice. 

Jemma silently offered to take Natasha but Clint glared at her and pulled Natasha closer to him.

“You promised that she would be safe,” Clint hissed. “And sure, she’s safe enough but what about her mental health?” 

“She’s just the agent assigned to Natasha,” Maria tells him. 

“She’s my sister!” Clint barked. “You sent her to us and we adopted her. She’s family now and she’s suffering! Suffering, Maria!”

“What do you want me to do?” Maria questioned in a tired voice. 

Clint sighed, frustrated. “I just want her to stop hurting. No more going into the field unless the world is ending. Find a way to set her up with a therapist. Don’t keep Natasha away from her. They need each other.” 

“I can’t make any promises,” Maria huffed. “You need to understand that, Clint.” 

“I know,” Clint lets out a long breath of air, his voice now dejected. “I just… I got attached to her. She’s my sister. I don’t like seeing her hurt.” 

“I understand that,” Maria tells him, her voice calming down. 

Natasha had listened in on the conversation with rapt attention, soaking up all the information she could. 

She didn’t know what happened on the mission Lucia left on but she knew that Lucia came back different. She was hurting and Natasha didn’t know how to help. 


	16. Chapter 16

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> It turns out that even the team Maria Hill trusts the most can have moles. In other words, Natasha doesn't like that Ward guy.

“I didn’t know Hawkeye was your brother,” Skye commented casually during dinner. 

“Yeah, well,” Lucia pushed the food on her plate around, careful not to jostle the sleeping toddler in her lap. “It just kinda happened. We were paired together on a mission and grew close and then he ‘adopted’ me.”

“Any details you can share?” Ward questioned, eagerly leaning forward. 

“Nope, sorry,” Lucia shakes her head. 

“Then what about Natasha?” Ward gestured to the toddler in her lap. “What’s the story there?” 

“What do you mean?” Lucia raised an eyebrow, setting her fork down. 

“It’s obvious she’s not yours. She’s a redhead and you’re hispanic-- no offense,” Ward explained. “You look nothing alike.”

“She was the last survivor of a mission I went on. I had to take care of her while waiting for backup. Got attached and adopted her,” Lucia tells the backstory that Maria gave her. 

“I’ll bet Clint was thrilled to have a niece,” Coulson pipes up. 

“Yeah, he spoils her rotten,” Lucia nods, shifting Natasha into a more comfortable position. “He even--”

There was the sound of glass shattering that had Natasha bolting upright and Lucia flinching. 

Eyes fly to look at Skye who had knocked her glass off of the table.

“I’m sorry,” Skye’s eyes were wide as she scoots out and moves to clear the glass. “I can clean it up.”

“You’ll cut yourself,” Fitz scolds and Skye barely flinched away from him and Natasha tugs on Lucia’s hair. 

“I know,” Lucia murmured to the toddler knowing what Natasha wanted. 

Lucia stands and steps around the glass to Skye who was moving to kneel and pick it up. 

“Skye,” Lucia gently grasped Skye’s wrist to stop her from picking up the glass. “We have a broom. It’s alright. It’s only a glass.”

Skye’s eyes searched Lucia’s face for some sign of a lie. “But… but I broke something.”

“My mama once punished me for breaking a dish,” Lucia tells Skye as May grabs a broom and dustpan. “She screamed at me and she raised her hand and I was so frightened of breaking anything for a long time after that.”

Skye was looking at Lucia now and not at the broken glass. May went about continuing to clean up the broken glass. 

“I got scared whenever anything broke and always slipped into a panic attack. And being in Shield and not being able to handle things breaking don’t go together,” Lucia explained, her calves starting to strain from her crouched position. 

“How did you stop?” Skye murmured, letting Lucia let go of her wrist and slide her hand into hers. 

“Had people who support me,” Lucia replied truthfully. Natasha reached up to curl her fingers into Skye’s shirt to provide her own comfort to the young woman. 

Skye slumped forward and Lucia welcomed her into her arms, wrapping her up with her free arm. Lucia could hear the team start to trickle out of the kitchen to give them peace. May had thrown away the glass and put away the broom before she too left. 

Lucia ends up slumped against the wall with Natasha cradled in one arm and Skye in the other. Shit, she never meant to get attached like she did with the Avengers but here she was. 

Lucia is pretty sure that Skye fell asleep as the girl’s body gradually transitioned to dead weight leaning against her. 

Natasha chewed on her fingers and Lucia glanced longingly at the pacifier abandoned on the table next to Natasha’s bottle. 

“Need a hand?” Ward was in the doorway, slightly sweaty from a recent workout. 

Lucia nods. “Grab the pacifier and bottle.”

Ward swipes the items from the table and passes them to Lucia who sighed when she saw the bottle. “Spoilt.”

Ward looked down at the sleepy toddler. “I can make a new one if you tell me how.”

Lucia lights up and goes on to explain how to prepare Natasha’s bottle. She watched him like a hawk the whole time he did it to make sure that it was safe when he delivered it. 

Natasha grabs the bottle from his hands when he offers it and glares at him as she drinks until he backs off some. 

“Your backs are going to hurt,” He commented as he glanced at Skye squished against Lucia’s side. “Need a hand?”

“No,” Lucia shakes her head. “Waking up in someone’s arms or someplace you didn’t fall asleep is guaranteed to cause panic.”

Ward raised an eyebrow but nodded. “Alright then.”

Lucia sits with Skye, softly singing to Natasha as the toddler is content in her arms. 

Skye eventually wakes up, groggy and confused. “What--?”

She looks over at Lucia and her face flushes red. “Did I fall asleep on you… I’m so sorry.”

“Don’t be,” Lucia assured her. “I understand.”

“You do?” Skye raised an eyebrow. 

“I was a foster kid,” Lucia tells skye. “I learned many bad habits from them. Don’t talk, seen but don’t be heard, don’t break anything, be good.”

“Yeah,” Skye breathed out before nodding. She sits up and stands, stretching before offering a hand out to Lucia. Lucia takes it and clambers to her feet, stretching out her sore muscles. “Do you have any good stories about your brother?”

Lucia remembers late nights of talking with Clint about random missions. 

“You bet,” Lucia grins. “Join me in my room and I can tell you all about it.”

Natasha was asleep, fingers still curled into Lucia’s top as the two entered Lucia’s bunk. Lucia sets Natasha down in the collapsable crib that was set up but barely used since Natasha usually slept with her. Lucia takes a seat on her bed and gestured for Skye to take one too before she launched off into a story about Clint. 

* * *

Natasha had known both Coulson and May before things went awry. It felt weird to be around them now, especially now that she knew Coulson wasn’t dead and that May was back in the field.

The team wasn’t bad. Natasha didn’t mind Skye and Jemma was nice, even if she was a little overbearing. 

Jemma passed her to Fitz once and the man nearly dropped her, holding her awkwardly and unsure.

Natasha didn’t think he was any danger either. 

But Ward set off something in Natasha. He hadn’t done a single thing to harm either her or Lucia but every time she saw him there was a nasty feeling in her stomach and Natasha felt like throwing up. 

She told Lucia. She explained in broken sentences that she did not like Ward at all. Lucia held her close and promised to keep Ward away from her. 

But whenever someone else watched over her so that Lucia could do something, they didn’t make the same promise. 

Coulson only tried to pass her to Ward once and she screamed in his arms until Skye plucked her from Ward and grouched at the man for holding her wrong. 

After that interaction she could feel Ward stare at her. She would turn and look at Ward who would stare at her for a few moments before looking elsewhere. 

It settled uncomfortably in her stomach each time she caught his gaze. 

It felt predatory. 

And then Ward started to talk to Lucia more and more. Natasha knew that Lucia felt it too. The woman made a new effort to avoid him. 

Then he cornered them by the exit to the BUS. He tries to grab Natasha and Lucia yells at him. 

He smashed his fist into Lucia’s face and Natasha was jostled as Lucia refused to relent her grip on her. 

He tackles Lucia and Natasha falls as Lucia goes down. She tumbled the few feet to the ground, pain shooting up her arms as she tries to fall safely but ended up tumbling. 

Lucia and Ward are fighting, hands are flying and then Natasha jumps when a gunshot goes off. 

The gunshot sends the team rushing to their location. Hands grab the back of her outfit and she’s yanked up into Ward’s hands and she can see Lucia clutching her shoulder with red slithering between clenched fingers. 

Agents are yelling. Ward’s grip on her hurts. She tries fruitlessly to wiggle out of his arms to no avail. 

She can see guns trained on Ward before something tackles Ward in his side. She’s ripped from his hold and she recognizes Lucia’s safe hands. She’s tucked close to Lucia as the roll on the ground and Lucia curled up into a ball, her limbs shielding Natasha as fighting ensues. 

Natasha can hear Lucia murmuring to her in spanish, promising her safety and security. 

Natasha can’t help but think that this place isn’t safe either. They’d be safe back at the tower with the rest of the team but Fury insisted on moving them. 

“Lucia?” Jemma is hovering over them and Natasha feels a hand at her back. Lucia jerks her away from the hand. 

“Don’t touch my baby,” Lucia growled, pressing Natasha closer. 

“You’re both hurt,” Jemma tells them softly. 

“It’s just a graze,” Lucia murmured. “Please, don’t touch us.”

Natasha cranes her head to peek up at Jemma who was kneeling patiently a few feet away from Lucia. She looks in the other direction to see May handcuffing Ward who looked defeated. 

Natasha just wanted a nap. Everything hurt and was too loud and the infantile side of her mind was screaming in fear. 

Lucia’s thumb rubs her cheeks and Natasha belatedly realized that she was crying. 

“ _ Está bien. Te tengo _ ,” Lucia soothed. 

“Mama,” Natasha blurts and Lucia’s grip on her tightened. She wasn’t sure where that came from but she felt very unsafe and little. Her infantile side was fighting to take over but it just wasn’t safe. “Mama.” She repeats because it just felt right. 

“ _ Te tengo _ ,” Lucia repeats softly. “I have you,  _ chica _ .”

Natasha can see Coulson and May on either side of Lucia, gripping her upper arms and pulling her up to her unsteady feet. 

They’re guided down to the infirmary. Lucia is pulled up onto a cot and Skye takes Natasha from Lucia.

Natasha screams and cries, wiggling unhappily in Skye’s arms as she watches Jemma cut Lucia’s top from her body. Her bloody shoulder is revealed before Skye passes Natasha back into Lucia’s unharmed arm. 

Natasha sucks on her fingers, scrunching her face up at the metallic taste they have, pressing her face flush against Lucia’s bare skin.

Lucia is talking but Natasha can’t find it in her to care until her pacifier brushes against her upper lip and she lets her fingers go in favor of her pacifier. 

She can see Skye in the corner of her eye who had fetched her pacifier. 

Natasha perks up when she hears Clint’s name from Lucia. She could trust Clint. 

Lucia shifts her so that she’s laying cradled in her arms and she can stare up and watch Jemma stitch Lucia’s shoulder. 

Clint would be furious with Maria. 

Lucia is looking down at her with a soft smile and Natasha can see steri-strips holding together a gnash that Ward left when he hit her on her cheek. 

May steps forward with a wet wipe and gently uncurls Natasha’s fingers from Lucia, wiping her hands and bits of her face, the wipe coming away red with Lucia’s blood. 

Natasha knew and trusted May. She can feel Lucia’s arm tremble with her weight so Natasha holds her arms up to May, the universal sign for pick me up. 

May looks surprised but throws the wipes away and gently takes Natasha from Lucia. 

Jemma is wrapping Lucia’s shoulder now so Natasha twists to inspect the rest of the room. 

Coulson and Fitz had left when Lucia’s shirt came off so it was just the girls in the room. 

Natasha pushes away the urge to sleep in May’s arms. It wasn’t safe. 

The adults were talking and Natasha was fine to tune them out until she heard Lucia answer a question. 

“Hydra.”

Natasha twists in May’s arms to get Lucia back into view and reached out towards her. 

The reminder of Hydra was just too much. Natasha felt like crying. 

Lucia outstretched her arm and Jemma says something about Natasha putting a strain on her stitches and Natasha can barely keep herself together. 

“Mama,” Natasha stretched herself as far as she could. “Up. Mama.”

May, against Jemma’s insistence, hands Natasha back over to Lucia who had leaned back so that Natasha could rest on her upper chest. 

Natasha can hear Lucia say something about a phone before Skye disappears and returns with the phone that Tony gave Lucia. She can hear shouting on the phone and Lucia heave for air as she quietly snaps back but she’s tired and safe in Lucia’s arms. 

So Natasha sleeps. 

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> está bien. Te tengo- it’s okay, I have you


	17. Chapter 17

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> To cope with the trauma of recent events, Natasha's adult side shuts down.

Lucia woke up at Natasha’s cries. For some reason the toddler was screaming and sobbing and Lucia couldn’t calm her down enough to figure out why. She paces as she sways and sings but Natasha continues to cry. 

Lucia murmurs in spanish and tries everything she could think of to see if she could calm Natasha’s cries. 

Lucia eventually went to the kitchen to see if Natasha was hungry and bounced the toddler gently as the bottle microwaves. 

“Everything okay?” Coulson enters the kitchen, looking tired but still in his suit. 

Lucia nods even though she was tired and worn out. She tries to give Natasha the bottle but the toddler smacks it away and it hits the grounds. 

“May I?” Coulson extends his arms and Lucia trusts the man enough so she goes to hand over Natasha when the toddler screeches louder. 

“Mama!” She yells, digging her fingers into Lucia’s top. 

Lucia freezes at the name before she pulls Natasha back close to her and continues to sway her. 

Her arm was in a sling from the wound in her shoulder but Lucia powers through the pain to hold Natasha close. 

Coulson’s gaze was sympathetic. “Is there anything I can do to help?”

Lucia felt a little helpless as Natasha wails, hiccuping sobs wracking her tiny body as she gasps for air that leaves faster than it comes. 

Lucia shakes her head and Coulson nods. “Just let me know,” He gently placed a hand onto Natasha’s head and went back to his office. 

Lucia took Natasha back to her bunk and set Natasha down on her bed, setting pillows on either side of the wiggling toddler so that she couldn’t roll off of the bed. 

Lucia calls Tony. 

“Lucy-loo!” Tony greets her, having been aware of the situation with Hydra. “How are you?”

Lucia lets out a small sigh. “I can’t calm Natasha. She’s inconsolable,” Lucia explained, her body aching. 

“Does she appear to be in any discomfort?” Tony inquired when he heard the screaming wails that came from Natasha. 

“Not that I can see,” Lucia paced the length of her room. 

“Will she talk to you? Has she said anything?” Tony continued. 

“Nothing of importance,” Lucia sighed. 

“And all her needs are met?” Tony can’t help but ask. 

“Yes,” Lucia replied. 

“Well…” Tony paused as he thought. “She’s obviously regressed into a younger mindset. Perhaps it is trauma due to the recent events.”

Lucia hadn’t thought about that.

“She’s probably overwhelmed,” Tony is thinking out loud. “She’ll pick up on your distress. Keep calm and find somewhere quiet to hunker down. She’ll have a negative reaction if you try to separate her. She’ll probably not be hungry and stop doing basic skills like crawling.”

“Tony, you are a lifesaver,” Lucia thanked him profusely. “Would you give Maria a call and tell her to tell the team to leave us alone bar an emergency.”

“Sure. Take care of the squirt, Lucy-loo. Stay safe,” Tony tells her sincerely. “Barton will want to hear from you soon.”

Lucia hung up and pulled her sling off. She could hear Jemma nagging her in the back of her mind but Natasha came first. 

“Alright, I hear you, chica,” Lucia promised, leaning over and scooping Natasha back up. The toddler curled her fingers into Lucia’s top and yanks herself closer. Natasha buries her face into Lucia’s shoulder and sobs. 

Lucia locks the door to her bunk and sits in front of it, holding Natasha close to her. 

“These last few days have been scary, huh  _ chica _ ,” Lucia softly stroked the pad of her thumb over Natasha’s cheek as the toddler tucked herself against Lucia’s chest. “Ward is gone. You’re safe. I won’t let you go, I promise.”

Natasha’s fingers are curled tightly into Lucia’s pajamas, tethering herself to the woman. 

“I still remember the first time I saw you,” Lucia reminices, her fingers tracing random patterns onto Natasha’s back. “I was so startled when they told me who you were and how a team of male superheroes were afraid of a child.”

Natasha had calmed down some and was staring up at Lucia, chewing on her fingers as she sniffles every few seconds. Her face was flushed and tears marred her face, soaking the collar of her sleeper. 

“I never regret making that choice. Despite everything that has happened, I’m so happy to have gotten to know you and the others,” Lucia smiles gently at Natasha. “I will never regret it or you. I’m here for you. I promise.”

The time passes and eventually Lucia has to get up to make lunch for Natasha. She leaves the sling and dares to carry Natasha with her uninjured arm. Natasha had calmed down and was lightly dozing with her head tucked up under Lucia’s chin. 

Lucia didn’t expect other SHIELD members talking with the team. She knew that there was going to be talking about Ward but she didn’t know that it would be so soon. 

“Hey,” Skye greets Lucia gently. “We had orders not to disturb you.”

Lucia inspects the group and her eyes meet with one of the other teams. The world freezes as her grip on Natasha tightens. 

Lucia takes a step back, bumping into Skye and pushing her back too. 

“Lucia?” Skye questioned in a whisper, confused. 

Coulson was talking with the other team leader animatedly. 

“Get May,” Lucia felt like panicking. This was so much worse. “Meet in the bathroom.”

“What?” Skye frowned but Lucia had already turned and fled. 

Lucia pulled the bathroom door closed and slid down the wall. She couldn’t forget those eyes. Hydra’s infiltration of SHIELD had gone much further than anyone expected. 

The bathroom door opens and Lucia’s hand flutters for the gun that wasn’t at her side. But it was only May and Skye. 

“Skye said you wanted to see me,” May comments before she takes in the scene of Lucia panicking. 

Natasha was getting worked up by seeing Lucia panicking. 

“Hydra,” Lucia rasps and May crouches in front of her, her face serious. 

“Calm down. Deep breaths,” May reached out and placed a hand onto Lucia’s shoulder, giving a brief squeeze of reassurance. May coaxed Lucia through some deep breathing and didn’t dare try to take Natasha from her place. 

“I would never forget those eyes,” Lucia finally manages to rasp. “Why is he here?”

“They’re here to discuss Ward’s transgressions,” May replied as Skye stands post at the door. “Do you recognize him? Is he Hydra?”

Lucia nods. “He… he held me down as they strapped me into the chair. Shouldn’t he know that I’m here? It’s not safe. I need-- I need to leave. It’s not safe. It’s not safe.”

“Breathe,” May interrupts Lucia’s spiral. “Listen to me. Nothing will happen to you.”

Lucia lets out a jerky nod. 

“Skye,” May called the girl’s attention to her. “Take Lucia back to her room and stay there until either Coulson or I come to get you.”

Skye nods and helps May get Lucia back onto her feet. Skye plastered herself to Lucia’s side and they made their way back to Lucia’s bunk. 

“Would you swing by the kitchen and grab the juice, a bottle, and the baby cereal please?” Lucia requests and Skye nods, leaving quickly. 

“Sad.”

Natasha’s tiny voice makes Lucia’s head dart down to look at her. 

“Sad,” Natasha repeats, poking her finger at Lucia’s face. 

“Yes,” Lucia sinks into the bed, curling up. “But it will be okay.”

Skye returns and dumps the armful of things onto the bed. She helps Lucia prepare a bottle as Lucia takes a handful of cereal and offers it to Natasha who picks through it slowly. 

Lucia and Skye make small talk until May enters the room. 

“Bubba!” Lucia jolts and Natasha makes an unhappy mewling sound from where she was settled. 

“Hello sissy,” Clint enters behind May. “The whole team is being moved and placed undercover. I came to help you settle into the new place for a few days.”

Clint ruffled Lucia’s hair and reached out to tickle Natasha but the toddler squirmed unhappily until Clint pulled his hand back. 

“She’s sensitive after Ward,” Lucia explained and Clint nods, not at all bothered. 

“Okay. We leave tonight. Maria is going to meet us at the next base and go through SHIELD members with you to see if you can identify anybody else. The team sent to talk about Ward were all level six or higher and the fact that at least one was Hydra is concerning,” Clint explained, flopping onto the bed next to Lucia and wrapping an arm around her. “Tony and Pepper can’t leave because of Stark Industries, and Steve has personal matters to attend to, so you’re stuck with me.”

Tony had given Shield use of one of his safehouses in Miami to safely tuck Lucia and Natasha away in. Coulson’s team and Clint were put in charge of protection detail for Lucia and Natasha. 

Hydra had infiltrated Shield and set their eyes on Natasha, and by extension, Lucia. 

Come hell or high water, Lucia would not let anything happen to the toddler who called her ‘mama’. 


End file.
